218 – Pretty dumping JSON

The functions dump and dumps from the module json have parameters to write more human-readable output:

import json

pets = {
  "cat": True,
  "dog": True,
  "alligator": {
    "usually": False,
    "if you're crazy": True
  }
}

print(json.dumps(pets, indent="  ", sort_keys=True))

By setting indent="  " you get two leading spaces per level of indentation and setting sort_keys=True the keys of dictionaries are sorted alphanumerically.

So, the code above produces the following output:

{
  "alligator": {
    "if you're crazy": true,
    "usually": false
  },
  "cat": true,
  "dog": true
}

This is much easier to read than the default single-line output you get if you don’t use the parameters indent and sort_keys:

{"cat": true, "dog": true, "alligator": {"usually": false, "if you're crazy": true}}