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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I am trying to parse some text files containing JSON objects in Python using the json.load() method. It's working for one set of them, but for this one it will not:

{
"mapinfolist":{
  "mapinfo":[
  {"sku":"00028-0059","price":"38.35","percent":"50","basepercent":"50","exact":0,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77826-7230","price":"4.18","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-1310","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-2020","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-3360","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-4060","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-4510","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ,{"sku":"77827-7230","price":"2.36","percent":"60","basepercent":"60","exact":1,"match":0,"roundup":0}
  ],
  "count":2
}
}

It is in a file called 'map.txt' - I open it using open('map.txt') and then call json.load(). When I run my test program (test.py), the following error trace is generated:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 28, in <module>
    main()
  File "test.py", line 23, in main
    map_list = json.load(f1) 
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/json/__init__.py", line 268, in load
parse_constant=parse_constant, object_pairs_hook=object_pairs_hook, **kw)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/json/__init__.py", line 318, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/json/decoder.py", line 343, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/json/decoder.py", line 361, in raw_decode
raise ValueError(errmsg("Expecting value", s, err.value)) from None
ValueError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

The JSON object is valid - when I put it into https://www.jsoneditoronline.org/ it is parsed and displayed correctly, so I am having trouble identifying what could be stopping it from working when I try to do it in Python. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

EDIT: Here's my code.

import json
def main():

with open('map.txt') as f1:
    map_list = json.load(f1)

Trying map_list = json.loads(f1.read()) also does not work and gives me an almost identical error trace.

EDIT - RESOLVED:

I just copied and pasted FROM map.txt into a new TextEdit file map2.txt and used the new file instead, and it works now. I copied directly from the old file and made no changes - the only difference is that it is a different file. I can't make heads or tails of why that would be - any ideas? I would like to understand what may have happened so I can avoid the problem in the future.

share|improve this question
4  
Show us the code! – John Jun 18 '15 at 18:18
    
@John it has been added! – shinytinsmile Jun 18 '15 at 18:28
    
If I copy your JSON content into a file and load it with json.load(file('blah.txt')) in Python 2.7 it works fine. If I copy it into ideone.com and use Python 3 and json.loads(""" blah blah """) it works. Weird. I have to guess it's either referencing the wrong file (typo in the name) or the file was saved in a weird editor / encoding that makes it be interpreted differently? – TessellatingHeckler Jun 18 '15 at 18:30
    
@TessellatingHeckler I saved it in TextEdit and made sure it was plain text. The filename is definitely correct as well. :( – shinytinsmile Jun 18 '15 at 18:39
1  
It's a point. I notice in the error it says MAP_list = json.load(f2) and in your code sample it's called f1 - any chance you're opening the right file name but then passing json.load a different file variable? – TessellatingHeckler Jun 18 '15 at 18:44
up vote 0 down vote

Does the following solution work for you?

import json
f = open("map.txt")
map = json.loads(f.read())

Python Docs

share|improve this answer
    
No. Practically identical error trace. – shinytinsmile Jun 18 '15 at 18:33
    
It was probably an unusual white space ('\r\n') or ('\t') perhaps. Often times opening a file in emacs can highlight these unusual white spaces that can get injected by some windows applications. – Matt Jun 18 '15 at 22:11
up vote -2 down vote

maybe try to read all the file to string and then use json.loads

         def yourfunc():
             file = open('map.txt')
             json_string = file.read()
             map = json.loads(json_string)
share|improve this answer
    
This isn't really an answer. Some sample code would be more helpful – heinst Jun 18 '15 at 18:19

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