Python JSON encoder to support datetime?

Question

is there any elegant way to make Python JSON encoder support datetime? some 3rd party module or easy hack?

I am using tornado's database wrapper to fetch some rows from db to generate a json. The query result includes a regular MySQL timestamp column.

It's quite annoying that Python's default json encoder doesn't support its own datetime type, which is so common in all kinds of database queries.

I don't want to modify Python's own json encoder. any good practice? Thanks a lot!

ps: I found a dirty hack by modifying the Python JSON encoder default method:

Change:

def default(self, o):
    raise TypeError(repr(o) + " is not JSON serializable")

To:

def default(self, o):
    from datetime import date
    from datetime import datetime
    if isinstance(o, datetime):
        return o.isoformat()
    elif isinstance(o, date):
        return o.isoformat()
    else:
        raise TypeError(repr(o) + " is not JSON serializable")

well, it will be a temporary solution just for dev environment.

But for long term solution or production environment, this is quite ugly, and I have to do the modification every time I deploy to a new server.

Is there a better way? I do not want to modify Python code itself, neither Tornado source code. Is there something I can do with my own project code to make this happen? preferably in one pace.

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

json.dumps(thing, default=str)