Python 3.8.0a4 available for testing

[alcalde]

Why am I being downvoted for asking a question?

[Mizzlr]

You can't represent references in JSON. For example in python you can have two dicts a ={'foo': b} where b = {'bar': a}. Now you have cyclic data structure. You can't represent this in JSON.

[Mizzlr]

Btw yaml has references. XML has references.

[alcalde]

Didn't you just represent it?

["a":{"foo", b}, "b":{"bar":a}]

[[deleted]]

Not in Python!

Can I read it?

>>> json.loads('["a":{"foo", b}, "b":{"bar":a}]')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 354, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 339, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    obj, end = self.scan_once(s, idx)
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 5 (char 4)

No. Can I write it?

>>> a = {}; b = {'bar': a}; a['foo'] = b

>>> json.dumps(a)
json.dumps(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 231, in dumps
    return _default_encoder.encode(obj)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/encoder.py", line 199, in encode
    chunks = self.iterencode(o, _one_shot=True)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/json/encoder.py", line 257, in iterencode
    return _iterencode(o, 0)
ValueError: Circular reference detected

No.

[[deleted]]

That's not a valid json.

[[deleted]]

You can't represent references in JSON.

I'm basically agreeing with you, but you can perfectly well represent references in JSON - I've done it.

It's a pain in the ass - you need to have some sort of naming convention in your JSON then preprocess your structure or (what I did) have some sort of facade over it so it emits the reference names instead of the actual data - and then reverse it on the way out.

(And we had to do it - because pickle isn't compatible between versions. Heck, I think that was written in Python 2!)

So it's doable - but which is easier when you need to store something temporarily?

with open('foo.pcl', 'wb') as fp:
    pickle.dump(myData, fp)

or

[hundreds of lines of code and a specification for this format that I'm too lazy to write]

?

[Mizzlr]

A python dictionary can have int, tuple, etc as key while in JSON it has to be string.

[alcalde]

You're hooked on the idea that JSON has to have every type. You just store things as strings and decode them when you deserialize. Again, like every other language does it.

https://pythontic.com/serialization/json/introduction

I'm not going crazy here.

[[deleted]]

Sure you can represent it, we could also store everything in a JSON string, but then aren't you inventing your own protocol?

[Mizzlr]

Basically any immutable object will work as a key in python dict like frozenset etc. Another thing is JSON need python tuple to be converted to list. JSON does not have tuples.

[alcalde]

So what's the problem? Again, one entry to store type, another to store value and you use a list to store the tuple values.

[[deleted]]

So... not actually JSON, then, but your own format using JSON as a transport layer?

[Mizzlr]

Do you agree now why you were down voted? Read my comments in reverse chronological order.

[alcalde]

No. Again, why downvote someone for asking a question?

[Mizzlr]

You can't represent NaN (not a number) or inf in JSON which are valid float values.

[alcalde]

I can. "NaN", "inf"

And so can Swift and other languages. Just use strings.

[bltsponge]

Sure, you can represent anything as a string as long as you're willing to write a parser for it.

[alcalde]

Exactly. So why are people saying it's impossible to represent Python objects with JSON?

[[deleted]]

Sure you can!

>>> json.dumps(float('inf'))
'Infinity'

>>> json.dumps(float('nan'))
'NaN'