Replace each reoccuring string value of a one line flat json to a random value using python

Question

I have a JSON file (input.json) like the following which has 2 rows… (The real one has more than 1m rows)

{"one":"A1","two":"B2","three":"C3","four":"D4","five":"E5"}
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"WW","five":"VV","six":"UU"}

I want to basically change the value of each and every field with name four to a random value, so basically wherever it appears, it will remove what it currently have and change it to a random given value:

expected output:

{"one":"A1","two":"B2","three":"C3","four":"random123","five":"E5"}
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"akskaskas","five":"VV","six":"UU"}

It could be any random value..

I’m kinda struggling with python at the moment, any tips or solutions would really help!

from random import choices
import json

with open('input.json') as infile:
  data = json.load(infile)

data['four'] = ''.join(choices('asdf1234', k=10))

with open('output.json', 'w') as outfile:
    json.dump(data, outfile)

Asked By: Saffik

||

Source

Answer 1

You need to change your input file structure, the elements must be on a list, like this:

[
{"one":"A1","two":"B2","three":"C3","four":"D4","five":"E5"},
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"WW","five":"VV","six":"UU"},
{"one":"A1","two":"B2","three":"C3","four":"D4","five":"E5"},
{"one":"A1","two":"B2","three":"C3","four":"D4","five":"E5"},
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"WW","five":"VV","six":"UU"},
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"WW","five":"VV","six":"UU"},
{"one":"ZZ","two":"YY","three":"XX","four":"WW","five":"VV","six":"UU"}
]

You can change a key value with this:

from random import choices
import json

with open('input.json') as infile:
    data = json.load(infile)
    for i in data:
        i['four'] = ''.join(choices('asdf1234', k=10))

with open('output.json', 'w') as outfile:
    json.dump(data, outfile)

choices method will randomly choose 10 characters from ‘asdf1234’, join will create a single string, and the result will be store into four key.

Answered By: Diego Magalhães

Answer 2

Assuming your json file consists of a list of jsons, the following might be one solution:

import random
import string

# File content:
# [
# {'one': 'A1', 'two': 'B2', 'three': 'C3', 'four': 'D4', 'five': 'E5'},
# {'one': 'ZZ', 'two': 'YY', 'three': 'XX', 'four': 'WW', 'five': 'VV', 'six': 'UU'}
# ]

data = []

def get_random_alphaNumeric_string(stringLength=8):
    lettersAndDigits = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
    return ''.join((random.choice(lettersAndDigits) for i in range(stringLength)))


with('filename.json') as file:
    data = json.load(file)

for each in data:
    each['four']= get_random_alphaNumeric_string()

with('filename.json', 'w') as file:
    data = json.dump(data, file)

Answered By: Pujan Thapa

Replace each reoccuring string value of a one line flat json to a random value using python

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