[python] How to append data to a json file?

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)

One possible solution is do the concatenation manually, here is some useful code:

import json
def append_to_json(_dict,path): 
    with open(path, 'ab+') as f:
        f.seek(0,2)                                #Go to the end of file    
        if f.tell() == 0 :                         #Check if file is empty
            f.write(json.dumps([_dict]).encode())  #If empty, write an array
        else :
            f.seek(-1,2)           
            f.truncate()                           #Remove the last character, open the array
            f.write(' , '.encode())                #Write the separator
            f.write(json.dumps(_dict).encode())    #Dump the dictionary
            f.write(']'.encode())                  #Close the array

You should be careful when editing the file outside the script not add any spacing at the end.

You probably want to use a JSON list instead of a dictionary as the toplevel element.

So, initialize the file with an empty list:

with open(DATA_FILENAME, mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    json.dump([], f)

Then, you can append new entries to this list:

with open(DATA_FILENAME, mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as feedsjson:
    entry = {'name': args.name, 'url': args.url}
    feeds.append(entry)
    json.dump(feeds, feedsjson)

Note that this will be slow to execute because you will rewrite the full contents of the file every time you call add. If you are calling it in a loop, consider adding all the feeds to a list in advance, then writing the list out in one go.

Append entry to the file contents if file exists, otherwise append the entry to an empty list and write in in the file:

a = []
if not os.path.isfile(fname):
    a.append(entry)
    with open(fname, mode='w') as f:
        f.write(json.dumps(a, indent=2))
else:
    with open(fname) as feedsjson:
        feeds = json.load(feedsjson)

    feeds.append(entry)
    with open(fname, mode='w') as f:
        f.write(json.dumps(feeds, indent=2))

You aren't ever writing anything to do with the data you read in. Do you want to be adding the data structure in feeds to the new one you're creating?

Or perhaps you want to open the file in append mode open(filename, 'a') and then add your string, by writing the string produced by json.dumps instead of using json.dump - but nneonneo points out that this would be invalid json.

import jsonlines

object1 = {
               "name": "name1",
               "url": "url1"
          }

object2 = {
               "name": "name2",
               "url": "url2"
          }   


# filename.jsonl is the name of the file
with jsonlines.open("filename.jsonl", "a") as writer:   # for writing
    writer.write(object1)
    writer.write(object2)

with jsonlines.open('filename.jsonl') as reader:      # for reading
    for obj in reader:
        print(obj)             

visit for more info https://jsonlines.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

I have some code which is similar, but does not rewrite the entire contents each time. This is meant to run periodically and append a JSON entry at the end of an array.

If the file doesn't exist yet, it creates it and dumps the JSON into an array. If the file has already been created, it goes to the end, replaces the ] with a , drops the new JSON object in, and then closes it up again with another ]

# Append JSON object to output file JSON array
fname = "somefile.txt"
if os.path.isfile(fname):
    # File exists
    with open(fname, 'a+') as outfile:
        outfile.seek(-1, os.SEEK_END)
        outfile.truncate()
        outfile.write(',')
        json.dump(data_dict, outfile)
        outfile.write(']')
else: 
    # Create file
    with open(fname, 'w') as outfile:
        array = []
        array.append(data_dict)
        json.dump(array, outfile)

You can simply import the data from the source file, read it, and save what you want to append to a variable. Then open the destination file, assign the list data inside to a new variable (presumably this will all be valid JSON), then use the 'append' function on this list variable and append the first variable to it. Viola, you have appended to the JSON list. Now just overwrite your destination file with the newly appended list (as JSON).

The 'a' mode in your 'open' function will not work here because it will just tack everything on to the end of the file, which will make it non-valid JSON format.

Using a instead of w should let you update the file instead of creating a new one/overwriting everything in the existing file.

See this answer for a difference in the modes.

this, work for me :

with open('file.json', 'a') as outfile:
    outfile.write(json.dumps(data))
    outfile.write(",")
    outfile.close()