python - convert encoded json into utf-8

Question

I have several json files that need to be handled in a python script, although it seems to NOT to be in a valid json format:

{
  'data': [

    {
     'ad_id': u'6038487',
     'adset_id': u'6038483800',
     'campaign_id': u'603763200',
     'created_time': u'2015-12-17T15:26:04+0000',
     'field_data': [
          {u'values': [u'Fahrrad'], u'name': u'what is your vehicle?'},
          {u'values': [u'Coco'], u'name': u'first_name'},
          {u'values': [u'Homer'], u'name': u'last_name'},
          {u'values': [u'aaa@hotmail.de'], u'name': u'email'},
          {u'values': [u'+490999999'], u'name': u'phone_number'}
          ], 'id': u'5655545710'
    },
    {
   'ad_id': u'39392400',
   'adset_id': u'39366200',
   'campaign_id': u'39363200',
   'created_time': u'2014-12-16T13:01:52+0000',
   'field_data': [
           {u'values': [u'Frankfurt'], u'name': u'in_welcher_stadt_m\xf6chtest_du_arbeiten?'},
           {u'values': [u'Auto'], u'name': u'what is your vehicle?'},
           {u'values': [u'Homer'], u'name': u'first_name'},
           {u'values': [u'abc'], u'name': u'last_name'},
           {u'values': [u'XYZ@gmail.com'], u'name': u'email'},
           {u'values': [u'0555555555'], u'name': u'phone_number'}
            ],
    'id': u'149809770'
    }
    ]
}

1. it has single-quotes instead of double-quotes
2. is encoded (seethe u )
3. some letters are encoded eg \\xf6 that represents ö

ideally, the json should be possible to read with the snippet:

import json
import pprint


with open('leads.json') as data_file:
    data = json.load(data_file)

pprint(data)

How can I convert the input json into a valid json in utf-8 format?

Answer 1

As I said, that's not JSON, it's a printed representation of a Python object (which happens to look similar to JSON). To safely import it, you can use ast.literal_eval :

from pprint import pprint
import ast
with open('leads.json') as data_file:
       data = ast.literal_eval(data_file.read())
pprint(data)