Need A Way To Load Embedded, Escaped Json Strings In Python

I have to parse the following JSON string: {'JobDescription':'{\'project\': \'1322\', \'vault\': \'qa-122\'}'}' If I try to use json.loads, I get the following: >>> impor

Solution 1:

You are not producing embedded backslashes; Python is interpreting the \" as an escaped quote and the final string just contains the quote:

>>> '{"JobDescription":"{\"project\": \"1322\", \"vault\": \"qa-122\"}"}'
'{"JobDescription":"{"project": "1322", "vault": "qa-122"}"}'

Use a raw string or double the slashes:

>>> r'{"JobDescription":"{\"project\": \"1322\", \"vault\": \"qa-122\"}"}'
'{"JobDescription":"{\\"project\\": \\"1322\\", \\"vault\\": \\"qa-122\\"}"}'
>>> '{"JobDescription":"{\\"project\\": \\"1322\\", \\"vault\\": \\"qa-122\\"}"}'
'{"JobDescription":"{\\"project\\": \\"1322\\", \\"vault\\": \\"qa-122\\"}"}'

This then loads fine:

>>>import json
>>> json.loads('{"JobDescription":"{\\"project\\": \\"1322\\", \\"vault\\": \\"qa-122\\"}"}')
{'JobDescription': '{"project": "1322", "vault": "qa-122"}'}

and you can decode the nested JSON document from there:

>>> decoded = json.loads('{"JobDescription":"{\\"project\\": \\"1322\\", \\"vault\\": \\"qa-122\\"}"}')
>>> json.loads(decoded['JobDescription'])
{'project': '1322', 'vault': 'qa-122'}