Getting imported json data into a data frame - json

Question

I have a file containing over 1500 json objects that I want to work with in R. I've been able to import the data as a list, but am having trouble coercing it into a useful structure. I want to create a data frame containing a row for each json object and a column for each key:value pair.
I've recreated my situation with this small, fake data set:
[{"name":"Doe, John","group":"Red","age (y)":24,"height (cm)":182,"wieght (kg)":74.8,"score":null},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Green","age (y)":30,"height (cm)":170,"wieght (kg)":70.1,"score":500},
{"name":"Smith, Joan","group":"Yellow","age (y)":41,"height (cm)":169,"wieght (kg)":60,"score":null},
{"name":"Brown, Sam","group":"Green","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":183,"wieght (kg)":75,"score":865},
{"name":"Jones, Larry","group":"Green","age (y)":31,"height (cm)":178,"wieght (kg)":83.9,"score":221},
{"name":"Murray, Seth","group":"Red","age (y)":35,"height (cm)":172,"wieght (kg)":76.2,"score":413},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Yellow","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":164,"wieght (kg)":68,"score":902}]
Some features of the data:
The objects all contain the same number of key:value pairs although
some of the values are null
There are two non-numeric columns per object (name and group)
name is the unique identifier, there are 10 or so groups
many of the name and group entires contain spaces, commas and other punctuation.
Based on this question: R list(structure(list())) to data frame, I tried the following:
json_file <- "test.json"
json_data <- fromJSON(json_file)
asFrame <- do.call("rbind.fill", lapply(json_data, as.data.frame))
With both my real data and this fake data, the last line give me this error:
Error in data.frame(name = "Doe, John", group = "Red", `age (y)` = 24, :
arguments imply differing number of rows: 1, 0

Answer 1

You just need to replace your NULLs with NAs:
require(RJSONIO)
json_file <- '[{"name":"Doe, John","group":"Red","age (y)":24,"height (cm)":182,"wieght (kg)":74.8,"score":null},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Green","age (y)":30,"height (cm)":170,"wieght (kg)":70.1,"score":500},
{"name":"Smith, Joan","group":"Yellow","age (y)":41,"height (cm)":169,"wieght (kg)":60,"score":null},
{"name":"Brown, Sam","group":"Green","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":183,"wieght (kg)":75,"score":865},
{"name":"Jones, Larry","group":"Green","age (y)":31,"height (cm)":178,"wieght (kg)":83.9,"score":221},
{"name":"Murray, Seth","group":"Red","age (y)":35,"height (cm)":172,"wieght (kg)":76.2,"score":413},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Yellow","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":164,"wieght (kg)":68,"score":902}]'
json_file <- fromJSON(json_file)
json_file <- lapply(json_file, function(x) {
x[sapply(x, is.null)] <- NA
unlist(x)
})
Once you have a non-null value for each element, you can call rbind without getting an error:
do.call("rbind", json_file)
name group age (y) height (cm) wieght (kg) score
[1,] "Doe, John" "Red" "24" "182" "74.8" NA
[2,] "Doe, Jane" "Green" "30" "170" "70.1" "500"
[3,] "Smith, Joan" "Yellow" "41" "169" "60" NA
[4,] "Brown, Sam" "Green" "22" "183" "75" "865"
[5,] "Jones, Larry" "Green" "31" "178" "83.9" "221"
[6,] "Murray, Seth" "Red" "35" "172" "76.2" "413"
[7,] "Doe, Jane" "Yellow" "22" "164" "68" "902"

Answer 2

This is very simple if you use either library(jsonlite) or library(jsonify)
Both of these handle the null values and converts them to NA, and they preserve the data types.
Data
json_file <- '[{"name":"Doe, John","group":"Red","age (y)":24,"height (cm)":182,"wieght (kg)":74.8,"score":null},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Green","age (y)":30,"height (cm)":170,"wieght (kg)":70.1,"score":500},
{"name":"Smith, Joan","group":"Yellow","age (y)":41,"height (cm)":169,"wieght (kg)":60,"score":null},
{"name":"Brown, Sam","group":"Green","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":183,"wieght (kg)":75,"score":865},
{"name":"Jones, Larry","group":"Green","age (y)":31,"height (cm)":178,"wieght (kg)":83.9,"score":221},
{"name":"Murray, Seth","group":"Red","age (y)":35,"height (cm)":172,"wieght (kg)":76.2,"score":413},
{"name":"Doe, Jane","group":"Yellow","age (y)":22,"height (cm)":164,"wieght (kg)":68,"score":902}]'
jsonlite
library(jsonlite)
jsonlite::fromJSON( json_file )
# name group age (y) height (cm) wieght (kg) score
# 1 Doe, John Red 24 182 74.8 NA
# 2 Doe, Jane Green 30 170 70.1 500
# 3 Smith, Joan Yellow 41 169 60.0 NA
# 4 Brown, Sam Green 22 183 75.0 865
# 5 Jones, Larry Green 31 178 83.9 221
# 6 Murray, Seth Red 35 172 76.2 413
# 7 Doe, Jane Yellow 22 164 68.0 902
str( jsonlite::fromJSON( json_file ) )
# 'data.frame': 7 obs. of 6 variables:
# $ name : chr "Doe, John" "Doe, Jane" "Smith, Joan" "Brown, Sam" ...
# $ group : chr "Red" "Green" "Yellow" "Green" ...
# $ age (y) : int 24 30 41 22 31 35 22
# $ height (cm): int 182 170 169 183 178 172 164
# $ wieght (kg): num 74.8 70.1 60 75 83.9 76.2 68
# $ score : int NA 500 NA 865 221 413 902
jsonify
library(jsonify)
jsonify::from_json( json_file )
# name group age (y) height (cm) wieght (kg) score
# 1 Doe, John Red 24 182 74.8 NA
# 2 Doe, Jane Green 30 170 70.1 500
# 3 Smith, Joan Yellow 41 169 60.0 NA
# 4 Brown, Sam Green 22 183 75.0 865
# 5 Jones, Larry Green 31 178 83.9 221
# 6 Murray, Seth Red 35 172 76.2 413
# 7 Doe, Jane Yellow 22 164 68.0 90
str( jsonify::from_json( json_file ) )
# 'data.frame': 7 obs. of 6 variables:
# $ name : chr "Doe, John" "Doe, Jane" "Smith, Joan" "Brown, Sam" ...
# $ group : chr "Red" "Green" "Yellow" "Green" ...
# $ age (y) : int 24 30 41 22 31 35 22
# $ height (cm): int 182 170 169 183 178 172 164
# $ wieght (kg): num 74.8 70.1 60 75 83.9 76.2 68
# $ score : int NA 500 NA 865 221 413 902

Answer 3

To remove null values use parameter nullValue
json_data <- fromJSON(json_file, nullValue = NA)
asFrame <- do.call("rbind.fill", lapply(json_data, as.data.frame))
this way there won´t be any unnecessary quotes in your output

Answer 4

library(rjson)
Lines <- readLines("yelp_academic_dataset_business.json")
business <- as.data.frame(t(sapply(Lines, fromJSON)))
You may try this to load JSON data into R

Answer 5

dplyr::bind_rows(fromJSON(file_name))

Answer 6

Changing the package from rjson to jsonlite fixed it for me.
So instead of this:
fromAPIPlantsPages <- rjson::fromJSON(content(apiGetPlants,type="text",encoding = "UTF-8"))
dfPlantenAPI <- as.data.frame(fromAPIPlantsPages)
I changed it to this:
fromAPIPlantsPages <- jsonlite::fromJSON(content(apiGetPlants,type="text",encoding = "UTF-8"))
dfPlantenAPI <- as.data.frame(fromAPIPlantsPages)