Constructing JSON data structures from non-string key python dictionaries

[MRAB]

On 2012-11-21 16:04, hfolch at gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 21, 2012 3:48:07 PM UTC, MRAB wrote:
>> On 2012-11-21 14:59, saikari78 wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm using the json module to  create a JSON string, then
>>> inserting  that string into a html template containing a javascript
 >>> function (from the highcharts library: http://www.highcharts.com/)
>>>
>>> The json string I'm trying to create is to initialize a data
 >>> variable in the javascript function, that has the following example
 >>> format.
>>>
>>> data = [{ y: 55.11, color: colors[0], drilldown: { name: 'MSIE
>>> versions', categories: ['MSIE 6.0', 'MSIE 7.0', 'MSIE
8.0', 'MSIE 9.0'],
>>> data: [10.85, 7.35, 33.06, 2.81], color: colors[0] } }]
>>>
>>> However, I don't know how to do that because dictionary keys in
 >>> python need to be strings. If I try to do the following, Python,of
 >>> course, complains that y,color,drilldown, etc are not defined.
>>>
>>>
>>> import json
>>>
>>> data = [ { y:55.11, color:colors[0], drilldown:{name: 'MSIE
versions',categories: ['MSIE 6.0', 'MSIE 7.0', 'MSIE 8.0', 'MSIE
9.0'],data: [10.85, 7.35, 33.06, 2.81],color: colors[0] }} ]
>>>
>>> data_string = json.dumps(data)
>>>
>>>
>>> Many thanks for any suggestions on how to do this.
>>>
>> Just quote them: data = [ { 'y':55.11, 'color':colors[0],
>> 'drilldown':{'name': 'MSIE versions','categories': ['MSIE 6.0',
>> 'MSIE 7.0', 'MSIE 8.0', 'MSIE 9.0'],'data': [10.85, 7.35, 33.06,
>> 2.81],'color': colors[0] }} ] Incidentally, dictionary keys in
>> Python don't have to be strings, but merely 'hashable', which
>> includes integers, floats and tuples amongst others.
>
> Thanks for your reply, but the javascript function expects option
 > names to be unquoted, otherwise it won't work.

Both Python source code and JSON require the dictionary keys to be
quoted, so using the json module to generate JavaScript code isn't
going to give you what you want.

It shouldn't be too difficult to write a simple function to do it,
considering the limited range of types.