Why is json.dumps() not returning the expected format?

Question

I have a function that returns a json formatted dict. I am using json.dumps() to store into an object, which I print later on in the code. What I'm getting as a returned isn't the typical json format I would have expected.

relevant code snippet:

rasa_decoded_output = interpreter.parse(u"{}".format(textobject.body))
rasa_json_formatted_output = json.dumps(rasa_decoded_output)

printing rasa_json_formatted_output results in this (an example):

("text": "This is a test", "entities":  < >, "intent_ranking":  < ("confidence": 0.71653000212560282, "name": "st_testing" ),  ("confidence": 0.05410130707298815, "name": "exists_item" ),  ("confidence": 0.024777391815713805, "name": "concierge_contact_request" ),  ("confidence": 0.020174561099034895, "name": "exists_sauna" ),  ("confidence": 0.018203983982849743, "name": "issue_bugs" ),  ("confidence": 0.017985724341235722, "name": "exists_driver" ),  ("confidence": 0.01687271448223236, "name": "request_power_adapter - custom" ),  ("confidence": 0.016857156745106013, "name": "request_newroom" ),  ("confidence": 0.015943797930370658, "name": "presto_cost" ),  ("confidence": 0.015567442054810358, "name": "exists_spa" ) >, "intent":  ("confidence": 0.07653000212560282, "name": "st_testing" ) )

What has done wrong here? What should be tweaked to get json to return in its typical format, so that I can parse through and pull out the desired properties.

Also, if I just print rasa_decoded_output it does the same thing as printing rasa_json_formatted_output, which suggests json.dumps() isn't having any effect.

Using json.loads() on rasa_decoded_output results in an error TypeError: the JSON object must be str, not 'dict'

Answer 1

The problem might be that rasa_decoded_output may not be a decoded json object yet. You may need to use json.loads first and once you have done so, you can use json.dumps