Python's json module, converts int dictionary keys to strings

This is one of those subtle differences among various mapping collections that can bite you. JSON treats keys as strings; Python supports distinct keys differing only in type.

In Python (and apparently in Lua) the keys to a mapping (dictionary or table, respectively) are object references. In Python they must be immutable types, or they must be objects which implement a __hash__ method. (The Lua docs suggest that it automatically uses the object's ID as a hash/key even for mutable objects and relies on string interning to ensure that equivalent strings map to the same objects).

In Perl, Javascript, awk and many other languages the keys for hashes, associative arrays or whatever they're called for the given language, are strings (or "scalars" in Perl). In perl $foo{1}, $foo{1.0}, and $foo{"1"} are all references to the same mapping in %foo --- the key is evaluated as a scalar!

JSON started as a Javascript serialization technology. (JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation.) Naturally it implements semantics for its mapping notation which are consistent with its mapping semantics.

If both ends of your serialization are going to be Python then you'd be better off using pickles. If you really need to convert these back from JSON into native Python objects I guess you have a couple of choices. First you could try (try: ... except: ...) to convert any key to a number in the event of a dictionary look-up failure. Alternatively, if you add code to the other end (the serializer or generator of this JSON data) then you could have it perform a JSON serialization on each of the key values --- providing those as a list of keys. (Then your Python code would first iterate over the list of keys, instantiating/deserializing them into native Python objects ... and then use those for access the values out of the mapping).

No, there is no such thing as a Number key in JavaScript. All object properties are converted to String.

var a= {1: 'a'};
for (k in a)
    alert(typeof k); // 'string'

This can lead to some curious-seeming behaviours:

a[999999999999999999999]= 'a'; // this even works on Array
alert(a[1000000000000000000000]); // 'a'
alert(a['999999999999999999999']); // fail
alert(a['1e+21']); // 'a'

JavaScript Objects aren't really proper mappings as you'd understand it in languages like Python, and using keys that aren't String results in weirdness. This is why JSON always explicitly writes keys as strings, even where it doesn't look necessary.