How can JSON data with null value be converted to a dictionary
Question: 
    {
      "abc": null,
      "def": 9
    }
    

I have JSON data which looks like this. If not for null (without quotes as a
string), I could have used `ast` module's `literal_eval` to convert the above
to a dictionary.

A dictionary in Python cannot have `null` as value but can have `"null"` as a
value. How do I convert the above to a dictionary that Python recognizes?


Answer: You should use the built-in [`json`
module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html), which was designed
explicitly for this task:

    
    
    >>> import json
    >>> data = '''
    ... {
    ...   "abc": null,
    ...   "def": 9
    ... }
    ... '''
    >>> json.loads(data)
    {'def': 9, 'abc': None}
    >>> type(json.loads(data))
    <class 'dict'>
    >>>
    

By the way, you should use this method even if your JSON data contains no
`null` values. While it may work (sometimes), `ast.literal_eval` was designed
to evaluate _Python_ code that is represented as a string. It is simply the
wrong tool to work with JSON data.

