How can I convert JSON to CSV?

With the pandas library, this is as easy as using two commands!

df = pd.read_json()

read_json converts a JSON string to a pandas object (either a series or dataframe). Then:

df.to_csv()

Which can either return a string or write directly to a csv-file. See the docs for to_csv.

Based on the verbosity of previous answers, we should all thank pandas for the shortcut.

For unstructured JSON see this answer.


First, your JSON has nested objects, so it normally cannot be directly converted to CSV. You need to change that to something like this:

{
    "pk": 22,
    "model": "auth.permission",
    "codename": "add_logentry",
    "content_type": 8,
    "name": "Can add log entry"
},
......]

Here is my code to generate CSV from that:

import csv
import json

x = """[
    {
        "pk": 22,
        "model": "auth.permission",
        "fields": {
            "codename": "add_logentry",
            "name": "Can add log entry",
            "content_type": 8
        }
    },
    {
        "pk": 23,
        "model": "auth.permission",
        "fields": {
            "codename": "change_logentry",
            "name": "Can change log entry",
            "content_type": 8
        }
    },
    {
        "pk": 24,
        "model": "auth.permission",
        "fields": {
            "codename": "delete_logentry",
            "name": "Can delete log entry",
            "content_type": 8
        }
    }
]"""

x = json.loads(x)

f = csv.writer(open("test.csv", "wb+"))

# Write CSV Header, If you dont need that, remove this line
f.writerow(["pk", "model", "codename", "name", "content_type"])

for x in x:
    f.writerow([x["pk"],
                x["model"],
                x["fields"]["codename"],
                x["fields"]["name"],
                x["fields"]["content_type"]])

You will get output as:

pk,model,codename,name,content_type
22,auth.permission,add_logentry,Can add log entry,8
23,auth.permission,change_logentry,Can change log entry,8
24,auth.permission,delete_logentry,Can delete log entry,8