json2pystmt 0.4.0

Convert JSON to Python assignment statements. Useful for grepping JSON, diffing JSON objects, and debugging.

json2pystmt

Convert JSON to Python assignment statements. Useful for grepping JSON, diffing JSON objects, and debugging.

Installation

pip install json2pystmt

Or with uv:

uv tool install json2pystmt

Command Line Usage

❯ json2pystmt --help
usage: json2pystmt [-h] [-v] [-k MAX_KEY] [-m MAX_VALUE] [-r ROOT] [filename]

Convert JSON to executable Python statements

positional arguments:
  filename              JSON file to process (default: stdin)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit
  -k, --max-key-length MAX_KEY
                        Maximum key length (default: -1)
  -m, --max-value-length MAX_VALUE
                        Maximum key length (default: -1)
  -r, --root ROOT       Root variable name (default: root)

Example

Input JSON:

{"key1": [1, 2, {"x": {"y": "z"}}]}

# From file
json2pystmt data.json

# From stdin
cat data.json | json2pystmt

Output:

root = {}
root['key1'] = [None] * 3
root['key1'][0] = 1
root['key1'][1] = 2
root['key1'][2] = {}
root['key1'][2]['x'] = {}
root['key1'][2]['x']['y'] = 'z'

Use Cases

Grep for values in JSON:

json2pystmt data.json | grep "error"

Diff two JSON files:

diff <(json2pystmt a.json) <(json2pystmt b.json)

Library Usage

from json2pystmt import json2pystmt

data = {"users": [{"name": "Alice"}, {"name": "Bob"}]}
lines = json2pystmt(data)
for line in lines:
    print(line)

Output:

root = {}
root['users'] = [None] * 2
root['users'][0] = {}
root['users'][0]['name'] = 'Alice'
root['users'][1] = {}
root['users'][1]['name'] = 'Bob'

API

def json2pystmt(jsonobj: Any, rootname: str = "root", max_key: int = -1, max_value: int = -1)

Convert a JSON-compatible object to a list of Python assignment statements.

• jsonobj: Any JSON-compatible Python object (dict, list, str, int, float, bool, None)
• rootname: Variable name to use as the root (default: "root")
• max_key: Maximum key length
• max_value: Maximum value length
• Returns: List of assignment statement strings

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

License

MIT