How to convert JSON data into a Python object

Question

I want to use Python to convert JSON data into a Python object.

I receive JSON data objects from the Facebook API, which I want to store in my database.

My current View in Django (Python) (request.POST contains the JSON):

response = request.POST
user = FbApiUser(user_id = response['id'])
user.name = response['name']
user.username = response['username']
user.save()

• This works fine, but how do I handle complex JSON data objects?

• Wouldn't it be much better if I could somehow convert this JSON object into a Python object for easy use?

Answer 1

UPDATE

With Python3, you can do it in one line, using SimpleNamespace and object_hook:

import json
from types import SimpleNamespace

data = '{"name": "John Smith", "hometown": {"name": "New York", "id": 123}}'

# Parse JSON into an object with attributes corresponding to dict keys.
x = json.loads(data, object_hook=lambda d: SimpleNamespace(**d))
print(x.name, x.hometown.name, x.hometown.id)

OLD ANSWER (Python2)

In Python2, you can do it in one line, using namedtuple and object_hook (but it's very slow with many nested objects):

import json
from collections import namedtuple

data = '{"name": "John Smith", "hometown": {"name": "New York", "id": 123}}'

# Parse JSON into an object with attributes corresponding to dict keys.
x = json.loads(data, object_hook=lambda d: namedtuple('X', d.keys())(*d.values()))
print x.name, x.hometown.name, x.hometown.id

or, to reuse this easily:

def _json_object_hook(d): return namedtuple('X', d.keys())(*d.values())
def json2obj(data): return json.loads(data, object_hook=_json_object_hook)

x = json2obj(data)

If you want it to handle keys that aren't good attribute names, check out namedtuple's rename parameter.