From e2adddce5975b8268c210de05df349f0a24c0a69 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Eendebak <pieter.eendebak@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:38:35 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/5] add handling of unknown types

---
 qcodes/utils/helpers.py | 10 +++++++++-
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
index 3afea8cf22bc..a8df9a2e3e8d 100644
--- a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
+++ b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ class NumpyJSONEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
     """Return numpy types as standard types."""
     # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27050108/convert-numpy-type-to-python
     # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9452775/converting-numpy-dtypes-to-native-python-types/11389998#11389998
+
     def default(self, obj):
         if isinstance(obj, np.integer):
             return int(obj)
@@ -33,7 +34,14 @@ def default(self, obj):
                 'im': float(obj.imag)
             }
         else:
-            return super(NumpyJSONEncoder, self).default(obj)
+            try:
+                s = super(NumpyJSONEncoder, self).default(obj)
+                return s
+            except TypeError:
+                # we cannot convert the object to JSON, just take a string
+                s = str(obj)
+            finally:
+                return s
 
 
 def tprint(string, dt=1, tag='default'):

From 21136a242d271adbaa47cb38a8c88458c48f146c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Eendebak <pieter.eendebak@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2016 17:54:47 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/5] fix as suggested in PR

---
 qcodes/utils/helpers.py | 3 +--
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
index a8df9a2e3e8d..d72fbd33a787 100644
--- a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
+++ b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
@@ -40,8 +40,7 @@ def default(self, obj):
             except TypeError:
                 # we cannot convert the object to JSON, just take a string
                 s = str(obj)
-            finally:
-                return s
+            return s
 
 
 def tprint(string, dt=1, tag='default'):

From 55a9df3cc01b34fd9136147c0fc417a025b1a823 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Eendebak <pieter.eendebak@tno.nl>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2016 08:52:55 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 3/5] fix try-except style

---
 qcodes/utils/helpers.py | 1 -
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
index d72fbd33a787..37f8c3588d2b 100644
--- a/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
+++ b/qcodes/utils/helpers.py
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ def default(self, obj):
         else:
             try:
                 s = super(NumpyJSONEncoder, self).default(obj)
-                return s
             except TypeError:
                 # we cannot convert the object to JSON, just take a string
                 s = str(obj)

From 8bf77ce187d6e7587e5deae85e13a8e3f03a3915 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Eendebak <pieter.eendebak@tno.nl>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2016 08:53:08 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 4/5] add basic test for JSON encoder

---
 qcodes/tests/test_helpers.py | 24 +++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/qcodes/tests/test_helpers.py b/qcodes/tests/test_helpers.py
index 6b056153b3a7..0f7e0bc4c69b 100644
--- a/qcodes/tests/test_helpers.py
+++ b/qcodes/tests/test_helpers.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
                                   make_unique, DelegateAttributes,
                                   LogCapture, strip_attrs, full_class,
                                   named_repr, make_sweep, is_sequence_of,
-                                  compare_dictionaries)
+                                  compare_dictionaries, NumpyJSONEncoder)
 from qcodes.utils.deferred_operations import is_function
 
 
@@ -550,6 +550,28 @@ def test_depth(self):
             with self.subTest(args=args):
                 self.assertFalse(is_sequence_of(*args))
 
+# tests related to JSON encoding 
+class TestJSON(TestCase):
+
+        def testNumpyJSONEncoder(self):
+            e = NumpyJSONEncoder()
+            
+            # test basic python types
+            testinput=[10, float(10.), 'hello', {'a': 0, 'b': 1}]
+            testoutput=['10', '10.0', '"hello"',  '{"a": 0, "b": 1}']
+            # int
+            for d, r in zip(testinput, testoutput):
+                v=e.encode(d)
+                print(v==r)
+            
+            # test numpy array
+            x=np.array([1,0,0])
+            v=e.encode(x)
+            
+            # test class
+            class dummy(object):
+                pass
+            v=e.encode(dummy())
 
 class TestCompareDictionaries(TestCase):
     def test_same(self):

From 5a04d8115857d7e1fe6d70ed42ce018b5837b159 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Eendebak <pieter.eendebak@tno.nl>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2016 13:32:18 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 5/5] autopep

---
 qcodes/utils/validators.py | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/qcodes/utils/validators.py b/qcodes/utils/validators.py
index 80405a2c06a5..560ec694833f 100644
--- a/qcodes/utils/validators.py
+++ b/qcodes/utils/validators.py
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ def validate(self, value, context=''):
             if (np.shape(value) != self._shape):
                 raise ValueError(
                     '{} does not have expected shape {}; {}'.format(
-                            repr(value), self._shape, context))
+                        repr(value), self._shape, context))
 
         # Only check if max is not inf as it can be expensive for large arrays
         if self._max_value != (float("inf")):