Constructing JSON data structures from non-string key python dictionaries

[hfolch at gmail.com]

Thanks for your reply, but the javascript function expects option names to be unquoted, otherwise it won't work.
 


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.