pass a json string as an argument to Python script causes quotes problems -

i want write script takes in single argument, string contains json data, , (for sake of simplicity) prints something.

import argparse import json  parser = argparse.argumentparser(description='json load , print') parser.add_argument('-i','--inputstring', help='input string in json format',required=true) args = parser.parse_args()  inp = parser.parse_args()  data = json.loads(inp)  print(data['employees']) 

when run command line error because of double quotes use wrap string ending matching double quotes in json:

python myscript.py -i "{ "employees": "name name"}" unrecognized arguments employees... 

if switch json double quotes single quotes, json parser not work.

how handle this?

your code work expected if change how assign input variable. change line:

inp = parser.parse_args() 

to

inp = args.inputstring 

parse_args() returns argparse.namespace object, need retrieve input object prior passing parser. in addition, need escape double quotes in shell command. expected output above change run with:

python myscript.py -i "{ \"employees\": \"name name\"}"