get list of json paths in python

I’m looking to get list of all possible json paths in a json file – can recommend any one?

Eg : if input is below

{
   "_id":{
      "$oid":""
   },
   "aa":false,
   "bb":false,
   "source":"",
   "email":"",
   "createdAt":{
      "$date":""
   },
   "updatedAt":{
      "$date":""
   },
   "cc":"",
   "vv":"",
   "metadata":{
      "vv":"",
      "xx":[{}]
   }
}

o/p :

obj
obj._id
obj._id.$oid
obj.aa
obj.bb
obj.source
obj.email
obj.createdAt
obj.createdAt.$date
obj.updatedAt
obj.updatedAt.$date
obj.cc
obj.vv
obj.metadata
obj.metadata.vv
obj.metadata.xx
obj.metadata.xx[0]

I’m basically looking. a python version of this : https://www.convertjson.com/json-path-list.htm

I want to build a general solution , if any json file – it will be a single value for schema generation (ie one line in a newline delimeted json) Any suggestions ?

Answer

You can do this in a reasonably succinct way with a recursive generator. The string "obj" is a little awkward since it doesn’t occur in the data structure. On the other hand, adding it at the end is simple:

def get_paths(d):
    if isinstance(d, dict):
        for key, value in d.items():
            yield f'.{key}'
            yield from (f'.{key}{p}' for p in get_paths(value))
        
    elif isinstance(d, list):
        for i, value in enumerate(d):
            yield f'[{i}]'
            yield from (f'[{i}]{p}' for p in get_paths(value))

paths = ['obj'+s for s in get_paths(d)]

Gives you paths as a list of strings:

['obj._id',
 'obj._id.$oid',
 'obj.aa',
 'obj.bb',
 'obj.source',
 'obj.email',
 'obj.createdAt',
 'obj.createdAt.$date',
 'obj.updatedAt',
 'obj.updatedAt.$date',
 'obj.cc',
 'obj.vv',
 'obj.metadata',
 'obj.metadata.vv',
 'obj.metadata.xx',
 'obj.metadata.xx[0]']

Of course, you can wrap that last step in a function like and accept a root object string:

def get_paths(d, root="obj"):
    def recur(d):
        if isinstance(d, dict):
            for key, value in d.items():
                yield f'.{key}'
                yield from (f'.{key}{p}' for p in get_paths(value))

        elif isinstance(d, list):
            for i, value in enumerate(d):
                yield f'[{i}]'
                yield from (f'[{i}]{p}' for p in get_paths(value))

    return (root + p for p in recur(d))

list(get_paths(d))
# same result