Saving a JSON object to file.JSON

Question

I've create a JSON file, and I need to be able to share the file via email with other collaborators. However, although there are plenty of topics available on handling JSON objects in the R workspace, there are virtually no resources discussing how to actually export a JSON object to a .JSON file.

Here's a simple example:

list1 <- vector(mode="list", length=2)
  list1[[1]] <- c("a", "b", "c")
  list1[[2]] <- c(1, 2, 3)

exportJson <- toJSON(list1)

## Save the JSON to file
save(exportJson, file="export.JSON")

## Attempt to read in the JSON
library("rjson")
json_data <- fromJSON(file="export.JSON")

The final line, attempting to read in the JSON file, results in an error: "Error in fromJSON(file = "export.JSON") : unexpected character 'R'"

Obviously the save() function is not the way to go, but after extensive googling, I have found nothing that says how to export the JSON to a file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Solution 1

You can use write:

library(RJSONIO)
list1 <- vector(mode="list", length=2)
list1[[1]] <- c("a", "b", "c")
list1[[2]] <- c(1, 2, 3)

exportJson <- toJSON(list1)
> exportJson
[1] "[\n [ \"a\", \"b\", \"c\" ],\n[      1,      2,      3 ] \n]"
write(exportJson, "test.json")
library("rjson")
json_data <- fromJSON(file="test.json")
> json_data
[[1]]
[1] "a" "b" "c"

[[2]]
[1] 1 2 3

Solution 2

There is also the jsonlite package:

library(jsonlite)

exportJSON <- toJSON(list1)
write(exportJSON, "test.json")
list2 <- fromJSON("test.json")

identical(list1, list2)

Comments

[jdharrison]

Just use write(exportJson, file="export.JSON")

[Mpizos Dimitris]

I am using this method but it writes the file in one line. Any idea how can I overpass it? Can see also in this link: stackoverflow.com/questions/33958711/…

[PM0087]

But where is the file written to?