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Need a way to load inline, escaped JSON strings in Python

I need to parse the following JSON string:

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

If I try to use json.loads, I get the following:

>>> import json
>>> print json.loads('{"JobDescription":"{\"project\": \"1322\", \"vault\": \"qa-122\"}"}')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
 File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 365, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
 File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 381, in raw_decode
    obj, end = self.scan_once(s, idx)
ValueError: Expecting , delimiter: line 1 column 22 (char 21)

I have no control over the string that I get, as its generated by another system.

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1 answer

You are not creating an inline backslash; Python interprets it \"as an escaped quote, and the final line contains only the quote:

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

Use raw string or double slash:

>>> 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\\"}"}'

Then it loads normally:

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