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