How to find JSON object in text with python

Question

I'm trying to parse JSON object from text with python regex. I found this match:

'\{(?:[^{}]|(?R))*\}'

but in python I get this error:

re.error: unknown extension ?R at position 12

See the regex match in this regex101 example.

Answer 1

You found a regex that uses syntax that Python standard library re module doesn't support.

When you look at the regex101 link, you'll see that the pattern works when using the PRCE library, and the problematic (?R) syntax that throws the error uses a feature called recursion. That feature is only supported by a subset of regex engines.

You could install the regex library, an alternative regex engine for Python that explicitly does support that syntax:

>>> import regex
>>> pattern = regex.compile(r'\{(?:[^{}]|(?R))*\}')
>>> pattern.findall('''\
... This is a funny text about stuff,
... look at this product {"action":"product","options":{...}}.
... More Text is to come and another JSON string
... {"action":"review","options":{...}}
... ''')
['{"action":"product","options":{...}}', '{"action":"review","options":{...}}']

Another option is to just try and decode any section that starts with { using the JSONDecoder.raw_decode() method; see How do I use the 'json' module to read in one JSON object at a time? for an example approach. While the recursive regex can find JSON-like text, the decoder approach would let you extract only valid JSON text.

Here is a generator function that does just that:

from json import JSONDecoder

def extract_json_objects(text, decoder=JSONDecoder()):
    """Find JSON objects in text, and yield the decoded JSON data

    Does not attempt to look for JSON arrays, text, or other JSON types outside
    of a parent JSON object.

    """
    pos = 0
    while True:
        match = text.find('{', pos)
        if match == -1:
            break
        try:
            result, index = decoder.raw_decode(text[match:])
            yield result
            pos = match + index
        except ValueError:
            pos = match + 1

Demo:

>>> demo_text = """\
This is a funny text about stuff,
look at this product {"action":"product","options":{"foo": "bar"}}.
More Text is to come and another JSON string, neatly delimited by "{" and "}" characters:
{"action":"review","options":{"spam": ["ham", "vikings", "eggs", "spam"]}}
"""
>>> for result in extract_json_objects(demo_text):
...     print(result)
...
{'action': 'product', 'options': {'foo': 'bar'}}
{'action': 'review', 'options': {'spam': ['ham', 'vikings', 'eggs', 'spam']}}