How to Extract Specific Fields from JSON Files in Python: 4 Practical Methods

Introduction

In a WeChat group a fan asked how to extract the follower and ddate fields from a JSON file.

Approach

Four practical solutions are presented: regular expressions, three variations of jsonpath, and direct JSON loading.

1. Regular expression

import re
import json

file = open('漫画.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8')
content = file.readline()
ddate_result1 = re.findall('"ddate":"(\d+-\d+-\d+)"', content)
ddate_result2 = re.findall('"ddate":"(.*?)"', content)
follower_result1 = re.findall('"follower":(\d+),"', content)

print(ddate_result1)
print(ddate_result2)
print(follower_result1)

The script prints the extracted dates and follower counts.

2. jsonpath method 1

from jsonpath import jsonpath
import json

with open("漫画.txt", encoding="utf-8") as file:
    file_json = json.loads(file.readline())

follower = jsonpath(file_json, "$..follower")
ddate = jsonpath(file_json, "$..ddate")
print(follower)
print(ddate)

The $.. syntax works like XPath //, selecting all descendant nodes.

3. jsonpath method 2

import json
import jsonpath

file = open('漫画.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8')
obj = json.loads(file.readline())
follower = jsonpath.jsonpath(obj, '$..follower')
ddate = jsonpath.jsonpath(obj, '$..ddate')
print(follower)
print(ddate)

4. jsonpath method 3

import json
import jsonpath

with open("罗翔.txt", 'r', encoding="UTF-8") as fr:
    file_json = eval(fr.read().replace('
\u200b', ''))

follower = jsonpath.jsonpath(file_json, '$..follower')
ddate = jsonpath.jsonpath(file_json, '$..ddate')
print(follower)
print(ddate)

Conclusion

The article consolidates four workable ways to pull specific fields from JSON files, recommending jsonpath as a convenient library for future data‑extraction tasks.