How to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python

1. Use pprint() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python
2. Use json.dumps() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python
3. Use yaml.dump() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python

This tutorial will introduce how to pretty print a dictionary in Python. Pretty printing means to present something in a more readable format or style.

Use pprint() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python

pprint is a Python module that provides the capability to pretty print Python data types to be more readable. This module also supports pretty-printing dictionary.

Within the pprint module there is a function with the same name pprint(), which is the function used to pretty-print the given string or object.

First, declare an array of dictionaries. Afterward, pretty print it using the function pprint.pprint().

import pprint

dct_arr = [
    {"Name": "John", "Age": "23", "Country": "USA"},
    {"Name": "Jose", "Age": "44", "Country": "Spain"},
    {"Name": "Anne", "Age": "29", "Country": "UK"},
    {"Name": "Lee", "Age": "35", "Country": "Japan"},
]

pprint.pprint(dct_arr)

Output:

[{'Age': '23', 'Country': 'USA', 'Name': 'John'},
 {'Age': '44', 'Country': 'Spain', 'Name': 'Jose'},
 {'Age': '29', 'Country': 'UK', 'Name': 'Anne'},
 {'Age': '35', 'Country': 'Japan', 'Name': 'Lee'}]

To compare, below is the output of a normal print() statement:

[
    {"Name": "John", "Age": "23", "Country": "USA"},
    {"Name": "Jose", "Age": "44", "Country": "Spain"},
    {"Name": "Anne", "Age": "29", "Country": "UK"},
    {"Name": "Lee", "Age": "35", "Country": "Japan"},
]

The pprint() output is definitely more readable. What it does is to break each dictionary element in the array right after the commas while also sorting the dictionary’s values by key.

If you don’t want your key-value pairs sorted by key, then you should set the sort_dicts parameter to be False in the pprint() function.

Another thing to note is that pprint() will not pretty print nested objects, including nested dictionaries. So if you expect your values to be nested, then this is not the solution for that as well.

Use json.dumps() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python

Within the Python json module, there is a function called dumps(), which converts a Python object into a JSON string. Aside from the conversion, it also formats the dictionary into a pretty JSON format, so this can be a viable way to pretty print a dictionary by first converting it into JSON.

The dumps() function accepts 3 parameters used for pretty printing: the object for conversion, a boolean value sort_keys, which determines whether the entries should be sorted by key, and indent, which specifies the number of spaces for indentation.

We will use the same example dictionary as above for this solution. sort_keys is set to False to disable sorting, and indent is set to 4 spaces.

import json

dct_arr = [
    {"Name": "John", "Age": "23", "Country": "USA"},
    {"Name": "Jose", "Age": "44", "Country": "Spain"},
    {"Name": "Anne", "Age": "29", "Country": "UK"},
    {"Name": "Lee", "Age": "35", "Country": "Japan"},
]

print(json.dumps(dct_arr, sort_keys=False, indent=4))

Output:

[
    {
        "Age": "23",
        "Country": "USA",
        "Name": "John"
    },
    {
        "Age": "44",
        "Country": "Spain",
        "Name": "Jose"
    },
    {
        "Age": "29",
        "Country": "UK",
        "Name": "Anne"
    },
    {
        "Age": "35",
        "Country": "Japan",
        "Name": "Lee"
    }
]

Compared to the output of the pprint() function, this is much more readable, although it costs more lines since it’s in pretty JSON format.

What if the values given have a nested dictionary within them? Let’s edit the example a bit and take a look at the output.

import json

dct_arr = [
  {'Name': 'John', 'Age': '23', 'Residence': {'Country':'USA', 'City': 'New York'}},
  {'Name': 'Jose', 'Age': '44', 'Residence': {'Country':'Spain', 'City': 'Madrid'}},
  {'Name': 'Anne', 'Age': '29', 'Residence': {'Country':'UK', 'City': 'England'}},
  {'Name': 'Lee', 'Age': '35', 'Residence': {'Country':'Japan', 'City': 'Osaka'}}
]

print(json.dumps(dct_arr, sort_keys=False, indent=4))

Output:

[
    {
        "Name": "John",
        "Age": "23",
        "Residence": {
            "Country": "USA",
            "City": "New York"
        }
    },
    {
        "Name": "Jose",
        "Age": "44",
        "Residence": {
            "Country": "Spain",
            "City": "Madrid"
        }
    },
    {
        "Name": "Anne",
        "Age": "29",
        "Residence": {
            "Country": "UK",
            "City": "England"
        }
    },
    {
        "Name": "Lee",
        "Age": "35",
        "Residence": {
            "Country": "Japan",
            "City": "Osaka"
        }
    }
]

Evidently, pretty JSON nested dictionaries are supported using json.dump(), and visually it looks clean and very readable even if it’s nested.

Use yaml.dump() to Pretty Print a Dictionary in Python

Another way to pretty print a dictionary is by using the dump() function of the yaml module. It serves the same purpose as the json.dumps() function but in YAML format instead of JSON.

First off, install the YAML module using pip:

pip install pyyaml

or if using Python 3 and pip3:

pip3 install pyyaml

Let’s try it out with the same nested example used in the JSON example.

Take note of the new parameter default_flow_style, which determines whether the dump’s output style should be inline or block. In this case, the output should be block-style since we want it to be readable, so set this parameter to False.

import yaml

dct_arr = [
    {"Name": "John", "Age": "23", "Residence": {"Country": "USA", "City": "New York"}},
    {"Name": "Jose", "Age": "44", "Residence": {"Country": "Spain", "City": "Madrid"}},
    {"Name": "Anne", "Age": "29", "Residence": {"Country": "UK", "City": "England"}},
    {"Name": "Lee", "Age": "35", "Residence": {"Country": "Japan", "City": "Osaka"}},
]

print(yaml.dump(dct_arr, sort_keys=False, default_flow_style=False))

Output:

- Name: John
  Age: '23'
  Residence:
    Country: USA
    City: New York
- Name: Jose
  Age: '44'
  Residence:
    Country: Spain
    City: Madrid
- Name: Anne
  Age: '29'
  Residence:
    Country: UK
    City: England
- Name: Lee
  Age: '35'
  Residence:
    Country: Japan
    City: Osaka

In summary, it is subjective whether or not the YAML dump() function is more readable than the JSON dumps(). It’s up to personal preference or what type of output is required. Both functions beat the output of pprint when it comes to more complex data structures or nested objects.