I’m trying to use Python to read a JSON file called strings.json, but I keep getting errors when using json.load() or json.loads().
What’s the proper way to load the contents of a JSON file in Python to avoid issues like TypeError: expected string or buffer or ValueError: Extra data?
I’ve been there too! The key thing to remember is that when reading a JSON file in Python, you want to use json.load() rather than json.loads(). The reason is that json.loads() is for strings, while json.load() takes care of reading from file objects directly. This is how I usually go about it:
with open('strings.json', 'r') as f:
data = json.load(f)
This should prevent the common ‘expected string or buffer’ error you might encounter.
Exactly, @Rashmihasija
I’ve had the same issue. Another thing I’d recommend is to double-check that your JSON file is actually valid. Sometimes, it’s not just about the function call, your JSON structure could be causing problems.
I’ve run into cases where multiple JSON objects were stuck together without proper separation, which led to the ValueError: Extra data error. You can run the file through a JSON validator to catch those issues or load the file manually and inspect the content to make sure it’s all good.
Great points, both! Another issue I’ve seen is the ‘extra data’ error cropping up when the JSON file has multiple top-level JSON objects.
By default, Python’s JSON parser can’t handle that, but if you know the file is meant to have multiple objects (like in JSONL format), you can read the file line by line. This works well for JSONL files or any scenario where each line is a separate JSON object. Here’s a quick way to handle it:
with open('strings.json', 'r') as f:
for line in f:
data = json.loads(line)
# process each JSON object here
This is super useful for processing JSON lines, and it might save you a lot of headache in case you encounter multiple objects that aren’t properly formatted.