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loading dictionary from a file

Ben Finney bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au
Wed Feb 6 20:33:46 EST 2008 
Amit Gupta <emailamit at gmail.com> writes:

> Need a python trick, if it exists:
> 
> I have a file that stores key, value in following format
> --
> "v1" : "k1",
> "v2" : "k2"
> --
> 
> Is there a way to directly load this file as dictionary in python.

That input looks almost like valid JSON <URL:http://json.org/>.

If you can easily massage it into JSON format, you can use the Python
JSON library <URL:http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/python-json>:

    import json

    input_text = open('foo.txt').read()
    input_json = "{%(input_text)s}" % vars()

    reader = json.JsonReader()
    data = reader.read(input_json)

If the 'input_json' above actually is valid JSON, that will give the
corresponding Python data object.

This avoids the massive security hole of performing 'eval' on
arbitrary user input; the input isn't executed, merely parsed (as
JSON) to create a data object.

-- 
 \      “I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer |
  `\                        thinks he can get me five.” —Steven Wright |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney
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