python JSON only get keys in first level

As Karthik mentioned, dct.keys() will work but it will return all the keys in dict_keys type not in list type. So if you want all the keys in a list, then list(dct.keys()) will work.

Just do a simple .keys()

>>> dct = {
...     "1": "a", 
...     "3": "b", 
...     "8": {
...         "12": "c", 
...         "25": "d"
...     }
... }
>>> 
>>> dct.keys()
['1', '8', '3']
>>> for key in dct.keys(): print key
...
1
8
3
>>>

If you need a sorted list:

keylist = dct.keys()
keylist.sort()

for key in data.keys():
    print key