["python","json","python-2.7","iterator","key"]
python JSON only get keys in first level

I have a very long and complicated json object but I only want to get the items/keys in the first level! Example: { "1": "a", "3": "b", "8": { "12": "c", "25": "d" } } I want to get 1,3,8 as result! I found this code: for key, value in data.iteritems(): print key, value But it prints all keys (also 12 and 25)
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() # this is of type `dict_key`, NOT a `list` keylist.sort() And if you want them as simple list, do this: list(dct_instance.keys())