Json Dump(s) vs Load(s)

Braindump

November 17, 2023

Do you often google the difference between json.dump(s) and json.loads(s) while working with json data in Python?

Well then, this will be your quick guide to distinguish these functions.

The difference

Quite literally, json.load() and json.loads() loads json into your program, while
json.dump() and json.dumps() dump data in JSON.

ℹ️

Remember: s for string

Use load & dump when dealing with a file; loads and dumps when dealing with a string.

Assume you have a file named ‘data.json’ with the following:

{
    "name": "Joe", 
    "age": 25, 
    "city": "Mumbai"
}

    
  

import json

with open('data.json', 'r') as file:
    data = json.load(file)

print(data)

Output:

{'name': 'Joe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'Mumbai'}

import json

json_str = '{"name": "Jane","age": 30, "city": "Bangalore"}'
data = json.loads(json_str)

print(data)

Output:

{'name': 'Jane', 'age': 30, 'city': 'Bangalore'}

import json

data = {"name": "Grace", "age": 23, "city": "Chennai"}

with open('output.json', 'w') as file:
    json.dump(data, file)

Output:

{"name": "Grace", "age": 23, "city": "Chennai"}

import json

data = {"name": "Gary", "age": 28, "city": "Delhi"}
json_string = json.dumps(data)

print(json_string)

Output

{"name": "Gary", "age": 28, "city": "Delhi"}