Format JSON in Vim

Update: A much more versatile tool for formatting JSON is jq, which doesn’t require Python to be installed

Just a quick tip if you’re wanting to format JSON. Obviously it requires Python to be installed.

$ cat test.json | python -m json.tool

Additionally, if you use vim, it’s worth pointing out that it’s easy to use here too:

:%!python -m json.tool

• : allows a command to be entered
• % selects all lines (alternatively you can select a line number or range)
• ! allows a shell command to be executed

And that’s it!