JSON ValueError: Expecting property name: line 1 column 2 (char 1)
json.loads
will load a json string into a python dict
, json.dumps
will dump a python dict
to a json string, for example:
>>> json_string = '{"favorited": false, "contributors": null}'
'{"favorited": false, "contributors": null}'
>>> value = json.loads(json_string)
{u'favorited': False, u'contributors': None}
>>> json_dump = json.dumps(value)
'{"favorited": false, "contributors": null}'
So that line is incorrect since you are trying to load
a python dict
, and json.loads
is expecting a valid json string
which should have <type 'str'>
.
So if you are trying to load the json, you should change what you are loading to look like the json_string
above, or you should be dumping it. This is just my best guess from the given information. What is it that you are trying to accomplish?
Also you don't need to specify the u
before your strings, as @Cld mentioned in the comments.
I encountered another problem that returns the same error.
Single quote issue
I used a json string with single quotes :
{
'property': 1
}
But json.loads
accepts only double quotes for json properties :
{
"property": 1
}
Final comma issue
json.loads
doesn't accept a final comma:
{
"property": "text",
"property2": "text2",
}
Solution: ast
to solve single quote and final comma issues
You can use ast
(part of standard library for both Python 2 and 3) for this processing. Here is an example :
import ast
# ast.literal_eval() return a dict object, we must use json.dumps to get JSON string
import json
# Single quote to double with ast.literal_eval()
json_data = "{'property': 'text'}"
json_data = ast.literal_eval(json_data)
print(json.dumps(json_data))
# Displays : {"property": "text"}
# ast.literal_eval() with double quotes
json_data = '{"property": "text"}'
json_data = ast.literal_eval(json_data)
print(json.dumps(json_data))
# Displays : {"property": "text"}
# ast.literal_eval() with final coma
json_data = "{'property': 'text', 'property2': 'text2',}"
json_data = ast.literal_eval(json_data)
print(json.dumps(json_data))
# Displays : {"property2": "text2", "property": "text"}
Using ast
will prevent you from single quote and final comma issues by interpet the JSON like Python dictionnary (so you must follow the Python dictionnary syntax). It's a pretty good and safely alternative of eval()
function for literal structures.
Python documentation warned us of using large/complex string :
Warning It is possible to crash the Python interpreter with a sufficiently large/complex string due to stack depth limitations in Python’s AST compiler.
json.dumps with single quotes
To use json.dumps
with single quotes easily you can use this code:
import ast
import json
data = json.dumps(ast.literal_eval(json_data_single_quote))
ast
documentation
ast Python 3 doc
ast Python 2 doc
Tool
If you frequently edit JSON, you may use CodeBeautify. It helps you to fix syntax error and minify/beautify JSON.
I hope it helps.