(JSON) NameError: name 'false' is not defined in Python

(JSON) NameError: name 'false' is not defined in Python #

The Python "NameError: name 'false' is not defined" occurs when we use false instead of False in Python or we forget to parse JSON data into native Python objects. To solve the error, replace any occurrences of false with False in your code.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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# ⛔️ NameError: name 'false' is not defined. Did you mean: 'False'?
json_str = {"is_subscribed": false, "is_admin": false}

One way to solve the error is to replace all occurrences of false with False.

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json_str = {"is_subscribed": False, "is_admin": False}

If you are pasting a JSON string into your Python code, wrap it in quotes and mark it as a raw string.

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import json
json_str = r'''{"is_subscribed": false, "is_admin": false}'''

# 👇️ convert JSON string to native Python object
native_python_obj = json.loads(json_str)
print(native_python_obj)  # 👉️ {'is_subscribed': False, 'is_admin': False}

We used the json.loads method to deserialize a JSON string to a native Python object.

When we parse a JSON string into a Python object, all false values become False.

Alternatively, you can declare a false variable and assign it a value of False.

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false = False
my_dict = {"is_subscribed": false, "is_admin": false}

However, note that this is a hacky solution and might be confusing to readers of your code.

You can use the json.dumps method to serialize a Python object to a JSON formatted string.

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import json

# ✅ convert Python object to JSON
json_str = json.dumps({"is_subscribed": False, "is_admin": False})

print(json_str)  # 👉️ {"is_subscribed": false, "is_admin": false}
print(type(json_str))  # 👉️ <class 'str'>

# ✅ Parse JSON string to Python object
native_python_obj = json.loads(json_str)

print(native_python_obj)  # 👉️ {'is_subscribed': False, 'is_admin': False}
print(type(native_python_obj))  # 👉️ <class 'dict'>

Notice that False becomes false when a Python object gets converted to a JSON string.

Conversely, when we parse the JSON string to a native Python object, false becomes False.

If you use the requests module to make HTTP requests, you can call the json() method on the response object to parse the JSON string into a native Python object.

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import requests


def make_request():
    res = requests.get('https://reqres.in/api/users')
    print(type(res))  # 👉️ <class 'requests.models.Response'>

    # ✅ Parse JSON to native Python object
    parsed = res.json()

    print(parsed)
    print(type(parsed))  # 👉️ <class 'dict'>


make_request()

The res variable is a Response object that allows us to access information from the HTTP response.

We can call the json() method on the Response object to parse the JSON string into a native Python object which would convert any false values to their Python equivalent of False.

Conclusion #

The Python "NameError: name 'false' is not defined" occurs when we use false instead of False in Python or we forget to parse JSON data into native Python objects. To solve the error, replace any occurrences of false with False in your code.