r - Saving a JSON object to file.JSON

Question

I've create a JSON file, and I need to be able to share the file via email with other collaborators. However, although there are plenty of topics available on handling JSON objects in the R workspace, there are virtually no resources discussing how to actually export a JSON object to a .JSON file.

Here's a simple example:

list1 <- vector(mode="list", length=2)
  list1[[1]] <- c("a", "b", "c")
  list1[[2]] <- c(1, 2, 3)

exportJson <- toJSON(list1)

## Save the JSON to file
save(exportJson, file="export.JSON")

## Attempt to read in the JSON
library("rjson")
json_data <- fromJSON(file="export.JSON")

The final line, attempting to read in the JSON file, results in an error: "Error in fromJSON(file = "export.JSON") : unexpected character 'R'"

Obviously the save() function is not the way to go, but after extensive googling, I have found nothing that says how to export the JSON to a file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use write:

library(RJSONIO)
list1 <- vector(mode="list", length=2)
list1[[1]] <- c("a", "b", "c")
list1[[2]] <- c(1, 2, 3)

exportJson <- toJSON(list1)
> exportJson
[1] "[
 [ "a", "b", "c" ],
[      1,      2,      3 ] 
]"
write(exportJson, "test.json")
library("rjson")
json_data <- fromJSON(file="test.json")
> json_data
[[1]]
[1] "a" "b" "c"

[[2]]
[1] 1 2 3