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- [Instructor] To finish
up our introduction to

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json processing, let's
take a look at how you

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can print out formatted JavaScript

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object notation data so
that it's easier to read.

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So, if you look back up
here, in snippet four,

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where we simply listed out
the contents of the json file,

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it just came out as one
long line of information.

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But, it would be nice to be able to

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read this in a more
structured representation.

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So, it turns out there is a
function in the json module,

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called dumps, which
stands for dump string.

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We're going to use that here
to produce a formatted output.

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I'll execute it first just so you can see.

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And now let's talk about
what produced this output.

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So, first of all, we opened
up the json file that

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we wrote to previously for reading and

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we're going to call that accounts.

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In our print statement here,
we have a nested function call.

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First, we go to that file called

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accounts and we load it up in to memory.

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That actually is turning
back into the Python object.

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Now, we're taking that Python object and

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dumping that string of
information here in the

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context of the Python
interactive environment.

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Now, the dumps function takes
as its first argument an

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object that we want to see
the string representation of

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in json format and the second
argument is the indent that

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you'd like to use for
nesting the contents of the

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JavaScript object notation
object that's being output.

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So, we're using four space indent.

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Now, if we look at the original
output here in snippet four,

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the outer set of curly braces
is at the very left edge.

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Within that outer set of
curly braces, we had the

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accounts key and associated
with that was a list of values.

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So let's look at that.

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So here's the accounts key and here's the

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beginning of the list and
here's the end of the list,

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aligned underneath the
accounts key and all of the

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list items are indented within it.

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And as you recall, there were two

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dictionary objects inside
of there which were

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turned into Python, I'm
sorry, json objects.

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These are those two json objects
with their key value pairs,

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nicely structured so that
you can see them indented

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underneath, inside of rather,
the list in this case.

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So, this first set of
curly braces represents the

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first json object then we have a comma and

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then the second json object
in that list of information.

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So, by using the dumps
function, you can get a nice,

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structured, readable string representation

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of the JavaScript object notation.

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Obviously this is not as compact as

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what we saw back here
in snippet four but it

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does make it a hell of
a lot more readable.

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And when you're first working with

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JavaScript object notation,
this dumps function can come in

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particularly handy for
helping you understand the

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structure of the JavaScript
object notation that you're

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either creating or if you're
receiving it from a web service

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perhaps, that you're receiving
into your application.