Question

I’m trying to create a function that would add entries to a json file. Eventually, I want a file that looks like

[{"name" = "name1", "url" = "url1"}, {"name" = "name2", "url" = "url2"}]

etc. This is what I have:

def add(args):
    with open(DATA_FILENAME, mode='r', encoding='utf-8') as feedsjson:
        feeds = json.load(feedsjson)
    with open(DATA_FILENAME, mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as feedsjson:
        entry = {}
        entry['name'] = args.name
        entry['url'] = args.url
        json.dump(entry, feedsjson)

This does create an entry such as {"name"="some name", "url"="some url"}. But, if I use this add function again, with different name and url, the first one gets overwritten. What do I need to do to get a second (third…) entry appended to the first one?

EDIT: The first answers and comments to this question have pointed out the obvious fact that I am not using feeds in the write block. I don’t see how to do that, though. For example, the following apparently will not do:

with open(DATA_FILENAME, mode='a+', encoding='utf-8') as feedsjson:
    feeds = json.load(feedsjson)
    entry = {}
    entry['name'] = args.name
    entry['url'] = args.url
    json.dump(entry, feeds)

Answer 1

json might not be the best choice for on-disk formats; The trouble it has with appending data is a good example of why this might be. Specifically, json objects have a syntax that means the whole object must be read and parsed in order to understand any part of it.

Fortunately, there are lots of other options. A particularly simple one is CSV; which is supported well by python’s standard library. The biggest downside is that it only works well for text; it requires additional action on the part of the programmer to convert the values to numbers or other formats, if needed.

Another option which does not have this limitation is to use a sqlite database, which also has built-in support in python. This would probably be a bigger departure from the code you already have, but it more naturally supports the ‘modify a little bit’ model you are apparently trying to build.