Python – Difference between json.dump() and json.dumps()

Last Updated : 25 Apr, 2025

JSON is a lightweight data format for data interchange which can be easily read and written by humans, easily parsed and generated by machines. It is a complete language-independent text format. To work with JSON data, Python has a built-in package called json.

Note: For more information, refer to Working With JSON Data in Python

json.dumps()

json.dumps() method can convert a Python object into a JSON string.

Syntax: json.dumps(dict, indent)

Parameters:

dictionary – name of dictionary which should be converted to JSON object.
indent – defines the number of units for indentation

Example:

Python3

# Python program to convert 
# Python to JSON 
    
    
import json 
    
# Data to be written 
dictionary ={ 
  "id": "04", 
  "name": "sunil", 
  "department": "HR"
} 
    
# Serializing json  
json_object = json.dumps(dictionary, indent = 4) 
print(json_object)

Output:

{
    "department": "HR",
    "id": "04",
    "name": "sunil"
}

Python objects and their equivalent conversion to JSON:

Python	JSON Equivalent
dict	object
list, tuple	array
str	string
int, float	number
True	true
False	false
None	null

json.dump()

json.dump() method can be used for writing to JSON file.

Syntax: json.dump(dict, file_pointer)

Parameters:

dictionary – name of dictionary which should be converted to JSON object.
file pointer – pointer of the file opened in write or append mode.

Example:

Python3

# Python program to write JSON
# to a file
  
  
import json
  
# Data to be written
dictionary ={
    "name" : "sathiyajith",
    "rollno" : 56,
    "cgpa" : 8.6,
    "phonenumber" : "9976770500"
}
  
with open("sample.json", "w") as outfile:
    json.dump(dictionary, outfile)

Output: python-json-write-to-file

Let us see the differences in a tabular form -:

	json.dump()	json.dumps()
1.	json.dump() method used to write Python serialized object as JSON formatted data into a file.	json.dumps() method is used to encodes any Python object into JSON formatted String.
2.	Its syntax is -: *json.dump(obj, fp, , skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, default=None, sort_keys=False, kw)	Its syntax is -: *json.dumps(obj, , skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, default=None, sort_keys=False, kw)
3.	It is used to perform compact encoding to save file space	It takes 7 parameters.
4.	It is used to skip nonbasic types while JSON encoding	It can be used with Lists.

Python object

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Python – Difference between json.dump() and json.dumps()

json.dumps()

Python3

json.dump()

Python3

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