raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value)

Question

Noob question alert.

I'm simply trying to open a json file on Python 3.5 using the following code:

import json
with open('lista.json') as data_file:    
data = json.load(data_file)
print(data)

This is the error im getting:

File "", line 1, in runfile('C:/Users/Manuel Beja da Costa/Desktop/Drive/Projecto Phénix/dist_2pontos.py', wdir='C:/Users/Manuel Beja da Costa/Desktop/Drive/Projecto Phénix')

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 866, in runfile execfile(filename, namespace)

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 102, in execfile exec(compile(f.read(), filename, 'exec'), namespace)

File "C:/Users/Manuel Beja da Costa/Desktop/Drive/Projecto Phénix/dist_2pontos.py", line 19, in data = json.load(data_file)

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\json__init__.py", line 268, in load parse_constant=parse_constant, object_pairs_hook=object_pairs_hook, **kw)

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\json__init__.py", line 319, in loads return _default_decoder.decode(s)

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\json\decoder.py", line 339, in decode obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())

File "C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\lib\json\decoder.py", line 357, in raw_decode raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None JSONDecodeError: Expecting value

And this is the json file im trying to read:

{
  "listings": [
    {
      "listing": {
        "beds": 1,
        "extra_host_languages": [
          "es",
          "fr"
        ],
        "fully_refundable": true,
        "id": 14177767,
        "is_business_travel_ready": false,
        "is_family_preferred": false,
        "is_new_listing": false,
        "is_superhost": false,
        "lat": 38.72871983279113,
        "lng": -9.1430894448315,
        "localized_city": "Lisboa",
        "localized_neighborhood": "São Jorge de Arroios",
        "name": "Red room in the city center",
        "person_capacity": 1,
        "picture_count": 15,
        "picture_urls": [
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/2e5d63dd-fdf5-4e34-85cb-c52ceafe3fc2.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/9f0e0439-e49f-473c-a835-226811dba15d.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/c90ac958-b158-410c-84af-d95148e38984.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/a22eee21-d963-4161-a6e5-15c371f91295.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/5645a244-8d3b-4c4d-9192-0eaaaf57bdef.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/a16c0fc1-e581-4519-a9f4-d9da00f283f2.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/52129cd2-0cf4-4579-821e-bc468b57c95b.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/ade06b7c-9ca1-442c-b045-93dc38407005.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/8a0a21bd-fe7e-43fb-8923-8134e1bb8800.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/536bbb15-ea3d-41a2-8cd5-148bb490df7d.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/cfe67940-20f1-4dcd-993f-ff4d64e75e9c.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/fd5217e7-232f-42ab-bd25-94f00ea79bbe.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/366e9648-28bd-4d4f-b477-2c8696a64e85.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/e78df5cc-ba9c-4c2a-a7fb-b007401d5ec3.jpg?aki_policy=large",
          "https://a0.muscache.com/im/pictures/8ca4870d-782c-4e7c-b516-e09d6be0a928.jpg?aki_policy=large"
        ],
        "preview_encoded_png": "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAMAAAAFCAIAAAAPE8H1AAAAPUlEQVQIHQEyAM3/Af2pPuUZahkb+QH+njn0VLvmspsB+ZpM5DSJ2KueAbZgNxYLA9Ph6gHKXBIkOiHeueJ43BhqXfjB2QAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==",
        "reviews_count": 81,
        "room_type": "Quarto inteiro",
        "show_structured_name": false,
        "space_type": "Quarto inteiro",
        "star_rating": 5,
        "tier_id": 0,
        "fully_refundable_cutoff_days": 1
      },
      "pricing_quote": {
        "can_instant_book": true,
        "monthly_price_factor": null,
        "price": null,
        "rate": {
          "amount": 23,
          "amount_micros": null,
          "amount_formatted": "$23",
          "is_micros_accuracy": false,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "rate_type": "nightly",
        "rate_with_service_fee": {
          "amount": 23,
          "amount_micros": null,
          "amount_formatted": "$23",
          "is_micros_accuracy": false,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "weekly_price_factor": null
      },
      "recommendation_reason": null,
      "recommendation_reason_id": null
    }

Thank you very much for your time! :)

Answer 1

I assume the aforementioned code is being debugged in windows; try opening file in binary mode "b" that helped me when i'm going through same issue.

import json
with open('lista.json', 'rb') as data_file:    
    data = json.load(data_file)
    print(data)