Python 3.x cannot serialize Decimal() to JSON

I wanted to serialize Decimal to JSON, and also deserialize it back to actual Decimal class objects in a dictionary elsewhere.

Here is my sample program which works for me (Python 3.6):

import json
from decimal import Decimal
import decimal

class DecimalEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
    def default(self, obj):
        if isinstance(obj, decimal.Decimal):
            return {'__Decimal__': str(obj)}
        # Let the base class default method raise the TypeError
        return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)

def as_Decimal(dct):
    if '__Decimal__' in dct:
        return decimal.Decimal(dct['__Decimal__'])
    return dct


sample_dict = {
        "sample1": Decimal("100"), 
        "sample2": [ Decimal("2.0"), Decimal("2.1") ],
        "sample3": Decimal("3.1415"),
        "other": "hello!"
    }
print("1. sample_dict is:\n{0}\n".format(sample_dict))

sample_dict_encoded_as_json_string = json.dumps(sample_dict, cls=DecimalEncoder)
print("2. sample_dict_encoded_as_json_string is:\n{0}\n".format(sample_dict_encoded_as_json_string))

sample_dict_recreated = json.loads(sample_dict_encoded_as_json_string, object_hook=as_Decimal)
print("3. sample_dict_recreated is:\n{0}\n".format(sample_dict_recreated))

And here is the output:

1. sample_dict is:
{'sample1': Decimal('100'), 'sample2': [Decimal('2.0'), Decimal('2.1')], 'sample3': Decimal('3.1415'), 'other': 'hello!'}

2. sample_dict_encoded_as_json_string is:
{"sample1": {"__Decimal__": "100"}, "sample2": [{"__Decimal__": "2.0"}, {"__Decimal__": "2.1"}], "sample3": {"__Decimal__": "3.1415"}, "other": "hello!"}

3. sample_dict_recreated is:
{'sample1': Decimal('100'), 'sample2': [Decimal('2.0'), Decimal('2.1')], 'sample3': Decimal('3.1415'), 'other': 'hello!'}

Hope this helps!

That answer turned out to be outdated and there was another answer with the working solution:

class DecimalEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
    def default(self, o):
        if isinstance(o, decimal.Decimal):
            return str(o)
        return super(DecimalEncoder, self).default(o)

Note that this will convert the decimal to its string representation (e.g.; "1.2300") to a. not lose significant digits and b. prevent rounding errors.