Move json_normalize to pd namespace

doc/redirects.csv

@@ -777,7 +777,7 @@ generated/pandas.io.formats.style.Styler.to_excel,../reference/api/pandas.io.for
 generated/pandas.io.formats.style.Styler.use,../reference/api/pandas.io.formats.style.Styler.use
 generated/pandas.io.formats.style.Styler.where,../reference/api/pandas.io.formats.style.Styler.where
 generated/pandas.io.json.build_table_schema,../reference/api/pandas.io.json.build_table_schema
-generated/pandas.io.json.json_normalize,../reference/api/pandas.io.json.json_normalize
+generated/pandas.io.json.json_normalize,../reference/api/pandas.json_normalize
 generated/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.data_label,../reference/api/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.data_label
 generated/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.value_labels,../reference/api/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.value_labels
 generated/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.variable_labels,../reference/api/pandas.io.stata.StataReader.variable_labels

doc/source/reference/io.rst

@@ -50,13 +50,13 @@ JSON
    :toctree: api/
 
    read_json
+   json_normalize
 
 .. currentmodule:: pandas.io.json
 
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: api/
 
-   json_normalize
    build_table_schema
 
 .. currentmodule:: pandas

doc/source/user_guide/io.rst

@@ -2136,27 +2136,26 @@ into a flat table.
 
 .. ipython:: python
 
-   from pandas.io.json import json_normalize
    data = [{'id': 1, 'name': {'first': 'Coleen', 'last': 'Volk'}},
            {'name': {'given': 'Mose', 'family': 'Regner'}},
            {'id': 2, 'name': 'Faye Raker'}]
-   json_normalize(data)
+   pd.json_normalize(data)
 
 .. ipython:: python
 
    data = [{'state': 'Florida',
             'shortname': 'FL',
             'info': {'governor': 'Rick Scott'},
-            'counties': [{'name': 'Dade', 'population': 12345},
-                         {'name': 'Broward', 'population': 40000},
-                         {'name': 'Palm Beach', 'population': 60000}]},
+            'county': [{'name': 'Dade', 'population': 12345},
+                       {'name': 'Broward', 'population': 40000},
+                       {'name': 'Palm Beach', 'population': 60000}]},
            {'state': 'Ohio',
             'shortname': 'OH',
             'info': {'governor': 'John Kasich'},
-            'counties': [{'name': 'Summit', 'population': 1234},
-                         {'name': 'Cuyahoga', 'population': 1337}]}]
+            'county': [{'name': 'Summit', 'population': 1234},
+                       {'name': 'Cuyahoga', 'population': 1337}]}]
 
-   json_normalize(data, 'counties', ['state', 'shortname', ['info', 'governor']])
+   pd.json_normalize(data, 'county', ['state', 'shortname', ['info', 'governor']])
 
 The max_level parameter provides more control over which level to end normalization.
 With max_level=1 the following snippet normalizes until 1st nesting level of the provided dict.
@@ -2169,7 +2168,7 @@ With max_level=1 the following snippet normalizes until 1st nesting level of the
                                       'Name': 'Name001'}},
              'Image': {'a': 'b'}
              }]
-    json_normalize(data, max_level=1)
+    pd.json_normalize(data, max_level=1)
 
 .. _io.jsonl:
 

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst

@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ which level to end normalization (:issue:`23843`):
 
 The repr now looks like this:
 
-.. ipython:: python
+.. code-block:: ipython
 
     from pandas.io.json import json_normalize
     data = [{

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.0.0.rst

@@ -498,6 +498,9 @@ Deprecations
 - The parameter ``numeric_only`` of :meth:`Categorical.min` and :meth:`Categorical.max` is deprecated and replaced with ``skipna`` (:issue:`25303`)
 - The parameter ``label`` in :func:`lreshape` has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version (:issue:`29742`)
 - ``pandas.core.index`` has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version, the public classes are available in the top-level namespace (:issue:`19711`)
+- :func:`pandas.json_normalize` is now exposed in the top-level namespace.
+  Usage of ``json_normalize`` as ``pandas.io.json.json_normalize`` is now deprecated and
+  it is recommended to use ``json_normalize`` as :func:`pandas.json_normalize` instead (:issue:`27586`).
 -
 
 .. _whatsnew_1000.prior_deprecations:

pandas/__init__.py

@@ -175,6 +175,8 @@
     read_spss,
 )
 
+from pandas.io.json import _json_normalize as json_normalize
+
 from pandas.util._tester import test
 import pandas.testing
 import pandas.arrays

pandas/io/json/__init__.py

@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 from pandas.io.json._json import dumps, loads, read_json, to_json
-from pandas.io.json._normalize import json_normalize
+from pandas.io.json._normalize import _json_normalize, json_normalize
 from pandas.io.json._table_schema import build_table_schema
 
 __all__ = [
     "dumps",
     "loads",
     "read_json",
     "to_json",
+    "_json_normalize",
     "json_normalize",
     "build_table_schema",
 ]

pandas/io/json/_normalize.py

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 
 from pandas._libs.writers import convert_json_to_lines
+from pandas.util._decorators import deprecate
 
 from pandas import DataFrame
 
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ def nested_to_record(
     return new_ds
 
 
-def json_normalize(
+def _json_normalize(
     data: Union[Dict, List[Dict]],
     record_path: Optional[Union[str, List]] = None,
     meta: Optional[Union[str, List]] = None,
@@ -332,3 +333,8 @@ def _recursive_extract(data, path, seen_meta, level=0):
             )
         result[k] = np.array(v, dtype=object).repeat(lengths)
     return result
+
+
+json_normalize = deprecate(
+    "pandas.io.json.json_normalize", _json_normalize, "1.0.0", "pandas.json_normalize"
+)

pandas/tests/api/test_api.py

@@ -170,6 +170,9 @@ class TestPDApi(Base):
         "read_spss",
     ]
 
+    # top-level json funcs
+    funcs_json = ["json_normalize"]
+
     # top-level to_* funcs
     funcs_to = ["to_datetime", "to_numeric", "to_pickle", "to_timedelta"]
 
@@ -209,6 +212,7 @@ def test_api(self):
             + self.funcs
             + self.funcs_option
             + self.funcs_read
+            + self.funcs_json
             + self.funcs_to
             + self.deprecated_funcs_in_future
             + self.deprecated_funcs

pandas/tests/io/json/test_normalize.py

@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
-from pandas import DataFrame, Index
+from pandas import DataFrame, Index, json_normalize
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
 
-from pandas.io.json import json_normalize
 from pandas.io.json._normalize import nested_to_record
 
 
@@ -698,3 +697,10 @@ def test_with_large_max_level(self):
         ]
         output = nested_to_record(input_data, max_level=max_level)
         assert output == expected
+
+    def test_deprecated_import(self):
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            from pandas.io.json import json_normalize
+
+            recs = [{"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}, {"a": 4, "b": 5, "c": 6}]
+            json_normalize(recs)