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python requests to json

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests to JSON

If you're working with APIs, it's essential to know how to make requests and handle responses in Python. One of the most common formats for exchanging data is JSON, which stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It's a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate.

Python Requests Library

Python Requests is a popular HTTP library for making requests in Python. It abstracts the complexities of making requests behind a simple interface, allowing you to focus on what you want to achieve rather than how to achieve it. It supports various HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc., and handles cookies, redirects, and timeouts.

Converting Requests Response to JSON

When you make a request using the Requests library, you'll receive a Response object as the result. The Response object contains the server's response to the request, including status code, headers, and content. To convert the content into JSON format, you can use the built-in json module in Python.


import requests
import json

response = requests.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1')
data = json.loads(response.content)

print(data)

The code above will make a GET request to a mock API and retrieve a todo item with an ID of 1. The response content will be converted to JSON format using the json.loads() method.

Using Response.json() Method

The Requests library also provides a built-in json() method that makes it easy to convert the response content to JSON format. This method is a shortcut for calling the json.loads() method on the response content.


import requests

response = requests.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1')
data = response.json()

print(data)

The code above will produce the same output as the previous example, but with less code.

Handling JSON in POST Requests

If you're making a POST request to an API that requires data to be sent in JSON format, you can use the json parameter in the requests.post() method.


import requests

url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts'
headers = {'Content-type': 'application/json'}
data = {'title': 'foo', 'body': 'bar', 'userId': 1}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

The code above will make a POST request to a mock API with a JSON payload containing a title, body, and user ID. The headers parameter specifies that the content type is JSON, and the json parameter automatically converts the data dictionary to JSON format.

Conclusion

Python Requests and JSON are powerful tools for working with APIs. With a few lines of code, you can make requests, handle responses, and parse JSON data in Python. Whether you're working with third-party APIs or building your own, it's essential to understand how to use these tools effectively.

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