json

Json

This class provides methods to read, create and update JSON files, with support for comments inside the JSON data.

read()

This method will replace all special space characters with normal spaces.
Params:

• json_file: str the path to the json file
• comment_start: str = ">>" the start of a custom json comment
• comment_end: str = "<<" the end of a custom json comment
• return_original: bool = False whether to also return the original data, including comments

Returns: the JSON data as a dictionary or a tuple with the processed data and the original data

create()

This method will create a nicely formatted JSON file from a dictionary.
Params:

• json_file: str the file name or path, with or without file extension
• data: dict the data to be written to the file
• indent: int = 2 the amount of spaces to use for indentation
• compactness: int = 1 how compact the data should be formatted (see Data.to_str())
• force: bool = False whether to overwrite the file if it already exists

Returns: the absolute path of the created file

update()

Update single/multiple values inside JSON files, without needing to know the rest of the data.
Params:

• json_file: str the path to the json file
• update_values: dict[str, Any] the value-path/s along with the new value/s to be inserted
• comment_start: str = ">>" the start of a custom json comment
• comment_end: str = "<<" the end of a custom json comment
• path_sep: str = "->" the separator of the value-path parts (see Data.get_path_id())

Returns: no return value

Update Values:

The update_values parameter is a dictionary, where the keys are the paths to the data to update, and the values are the new values to set.

Example:

For this JSON data:

{
  "healthy": {
    "fruit": ["apples", "bananas", "oranges"],
    "vegetables": ["carrots", "broccoli", "celery"]
  }
}

... the update_values dictionary could look like this:

{
    # CHANGE VALUE "apples" TO "strawberries"
    "healthy->fruit->0": "strawberries",
    # CHANGE VALUE UNDER KEY "vegetables" TO [1, 2, 3]
    "healthy->vegetables": [1, 2, 3]
}

In this example, if you want to change the value of "apples", you can use healthy->fruit->apples as the value-path.
If you don't know that the first list item is "apples", you can use the items list index inside the value-path, so healthy->fruit->0.
⇾ If the given value-path doesn't exist, it will be created.