'{"job"["dev""mgr"]"name"{"last""smith""first""bob"}"age" } json loads(so {'job'['dev''mgr']'name'{'last''smith''first''bob'}'age' =rec true it' similarly straightforward to translate python objects to and from json data strings in files prior to being stored in fileyour data is simply python objectsthe json module recreates them from the json textual representation when it loads it from the filejson dump(recfp=open('testjson txt'' ')indent= print(open('testjson txt'read()"job""dev""mgr]"name""last""smith""first""bob}"age" json load(open('testjson txt') {'job'['dev''mgr']'name'{'last''smith''first''bob'}'age' once you've translated from json textyou process the data using normal python object operations in your script for more details on json-related topicssee python' library manuals and search the web note that strings are all unicode in json to support text drawn from international character setsso you'll see leading on strings after translating from json data in python (but not in )this is just the syntax of unicode objects in xas introduced and and covered in full in because unicode text strings support all the usual string operationsthe difference is negligible to your code while text resides in memorythe distinction matters most when transferring text to and from filesand then usually only for non-ascii types of text where encodings come into play there is also support in the python world for translating objects to and from xmla text format used in see the web for details for another semirelated tool that deals with formatted data filessee the standard library' csv module it parses and creates csv (comma-separated valuedata in files and strings this doesn' map as directly to python objectsbut is another common data exchange formatimport csv rdr csv reader(open('csvdata txt') tuplesfilesand everything else