Can't parse json file: json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data.

Question

I have a json file. A simplified version of it looks as following:

{
  "host": "a.com",
  "ip": "1.2.2.3",
  "port": 8
}
{
  "host": "b.com",
  "ip": "2.5.0.4",
  "port": 3

}
{
  "host": "c.com",
  "ip": "9.17.6.7",
  "port": 4
}

I run this script parser.py to parse it:

import json
from pprint import pprint

with open('myfile.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)
pprint(data)

But I'm getting this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "parser.py", line 5, in <module>
    data = json.load(f)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 299, in load
    parse_constant=parse_constant, object_pairs_hook=object_pairs_hook, **kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 354, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 342, in decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Extra data", s, end)
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data: line 6 column 1 (char 54)

Can you please point to me what's missing?

Your JSON file contains multiple top-level objects, which means it is not valid JSON. Perhaps you meant to wrap them in an array? — jwodder, Aug 19 '18 at 16:31
@jwodder thanks. Can you please clarify how can I wrap them? it is a huge file. — user9371654, Aug 19 '18 at 16:33

Fabian N. · Answer 1 · 2019-12-13T15:57:01.557

21

As you already found out: that is not valid JSON.
You have to modify it to make it valid, specifically, you have to wrap your top-level objects in an array. Try this:

import json
from pprint import pprint

with open('myfile.json') as f:
    data = json.loads("[" + 
        f.read().replace("}\n{", "},\n{") + 
    "]")

    print(data)

edited Dec 13 '19 at 15:57

answered Aug 19 '18 at 16:42

Fabian N.

3,807
2
23
46

nice walk around but just to clarify you end up with a list of dicts, not a dict itself – GGEv Jun 19 '19 at 14:19
@Evan yes, anything else doesn't make much sense as I would need to generate keys for a dict. – Fabian N. Sep 29 '19 at 10:16

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 19 '18 at 16:43

Your JSON data set is not valid , You can merge them into one array of objects. For example :

[
    {
        "host": "a.com",
        "ip": "1.2.2.3",
        "port": 8
    }, {
        "host": "b.com",
        "ip": "2.5.0.4",
        "port": 3

    }, {
        "host": "c.com",
        "ip": "9.17.6.7",
        "port": 4
    }
]

In JSON you can't have multiple objects of top-level but you can have array of objects and it is valid

You can see more JSON Data Set examples if you want in this link

If you want to know more about JSON arrays you can read in w3schools JSON tutorial

in my case I cannot just open the 2GB file with text editor just to add a pair of brackets — GGEv, Jun 19 '19 at 14:21

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 06 '20 at 19:38

0

Your JSON file isn't available in proper format.
It should be like this, inside a list, comma separated:

[
    {
     "host": "a.com",
     "ip": "1.2.2.3",
     "port": 8
    },
    {
     "host": "b.com",
     "ip": "2.5.0.4",
     "port": 3

    },
    {
     "host": "c.com",
     "ip": "9.17.6.7",
     "port": 4
    },
]

edited Jul 06 '20 at 19:38

β.εηοιτ.βε

33,893
13
69
83

answered Jul 06 '20 at 19:19

wahsandaruwan

587
5
7

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 10 '21 at 10:16

-1

Here, in this case, you can convert the JSON in the array format and this will work for you. Also to separate the data the comma (,) is missing in the JSON. Please fix that and the code will work

answered Nov 10 '21 at 10:16

Bhavesh Mandloi

29
6

Can't parse json file: json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data.

4 Answers4

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