needed: simple way to force json to decode to "normal" iterable python lists

Question

I've stackoverflow a ton and never found the need to ask a question before, and while there are a lot of threads on this subject, I can't seem to find something that is easy and makes sense. If I have somehow missed something, please provide a link.

Here goes: I am trying to pass lists back and forth between a python client/server using json, but am condensing the problem into a single block to illustrate:

import json
testdata = ['word','is','bond', False, 6, 99]
# prints normal iterable list
print testdata

myjson = json.dumps(testdata)

#prints [u'word', u'is', u'bond', False, 6, 99], which contains unicode strings
print json.loads(myjson)

# Iterates over each character, since apparently, Python does recognize it is a list
for i in myjson:
    print i

This seems wrong. I passed in an iterable list, and I got out something that can't be used that way. I've seen a lot of answers that suggest that I should just "deal with unicode" which is fine, if I knew how. Either I need a way to force json to load as ascii or utf-8 or something, or a way to allow python to iterate normally over the list containing unicode strings normally.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem is that you're iterating over myjson, the string, not over the result of json.loads(myjson), the iterable list.

myjson = json.dumps(testdata)

mydata = json.loads(myjson)
#prints [u'word', u'is', u'bond', False, 6, 99], which contains unicode strings
print mydata
#prints ["word", "is", "bond", false, 6, 99], which is still just a string
print myjson

# Iterates over each character, since it's a string
for i in myjson:
    print i
# Iterates over the list
for i in mydata:
    print i

Answer 2

json.dumps(testdata) is giving you a string... so iterating over the string gives you individual characters. Your code is doing exactly what you're asking it to do.

json.loads does not perform an in-place modification of the variable - so myjson is still a string when you iterate over it.