Why do I get "'str' object has no attribute 'read'" when trying to use `json.load` on a string?

Question

In Python I'm getting an error:

Exception:  (<type 'exceptions.AttributeError'>,
AttributeError("'str' object has no attribute 'read'",), <traceback object at 0x1543ab8>)

Given python code:

def getEntries (self, sub):
    url = 'http://www.reddit.com/'
    if (sub != ''):
        url += 'r/' + sub
    
    request = urllib2.Request (url + 
        '.json', None, {'User-Agent' : 'Reddit desktop client by /user/RobinJ1995/'})
    response = urllib2.urlopen (request)
    jsonStr = response.read()
    
    return json.load(jsonStr)['data']['children']

What does this error mean and what did I do to cause it?

score 273 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 13 '18 at 07:51

273

The problem is that for json.load you should pass a file like object with a read function defined. So either you use json.load(response) or json.loads(response.read()).

edited Oct 13 '18 at 07:51

sideshowbarker

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answered Jun 24 '12 at 00:33

mutantacule

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I don't understand this...how does doing read() solve the problem? The response still doesn't have a read function. Are we supposed to put the string in some object with a read function? – zakdances Aug 11 '12 at 09:37
136

@yourfriendzak read closely, it is two different functions with very similar names. `json.load()` takes a file like object with a `read()` method, `json.loads()` takes a string. It's easy to miss the "s" at the end and think they are the same method. – Joshmaker Apr 25 '13 at 12:02
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Thanks to Joshmaker's comment, json.loads() can parse string for JSON data! – Yu Shen May 10 '13 at 02:43
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@yourfriendzak This [answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2835559/parsing-values-from-a-json-file-in-python) would point you that with `open` you can achieve that. – chaim Jul 13 '14 at 03:38
Thanks Joshmaker. Your andwe is useful to me. load, loads ....How un-intuitive names given by originators of library. Really illogical – MANISH ZOPE Jan 03 '15 at 19:34
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@MANISHZOPE the `s` stands for "string". I agree that the standard library has some serious issues overall with how things are named, and this is a good example of how it gets messed up. – Karl Knechtel Jan 09 '16 at 20:04
@kosii I request you to what @Joshmaker said in your answer. It would be more helpful to users who just tent to overlook that tiny `s` – Rishav Feb 04 '19 at 21:10
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I hope the person who thought `json.loads` was more self-explanatory than `json.load_string` has been fired right after the release. – Arthur Attout May 13 '19 at 16:22

score 60 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '19 at 09:28

Ok, this is an old thread but. I had a same issue, my problem was I used json.load instead of json.loads

This way, json has no problem with loading any kind of dictionary.

Official documentation

json.load - Deserialize fp (a .read()-supporting text file or binary file containing a JSON document) to a Python object using this conversion table.

json.loads - Deserialize s (a str, bytes or bytearray instance containing a JSON document) to a Python object using this conversion table.

score 39 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 02 '20 at 17:48

39

You need to open the file first. This doesn't work:

json_file = json.load('test.json')

But this works:

f = open('test.json')
json_file = json.load(f)

edited Mar 02 '20 at 17:48

Pranav Kasetti

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answered Mar 02 '20 at 16:31

music_piano

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I found the error in the question when trying to open a file instead of a request response in the question. Clearly, at the backend, json is treating both similarly, and so this answer helped me. Clearly worth an upvote. – Nitin Khanna Apr 16 '20 at 19:34
This answer is so straightforward. Thank you! – JohnK Feb 24 '23 at 18:55

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 29 '14 at 19:51

If you get a python error like this:

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'some_method'

You probably poisoned your object accidentally by overwriting your object with a string.

How to reproduce this error in python with a few lines of code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import json
def foobar(json):
    msg = json.loads(json)

foobar('{"batman": "yes"}')

Run it, which prints:

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'loads'

But change the name of the variablename, and it works fine:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import json
def foobar(jsonstring):
    msg = json.loads(jsonstring)

foobar('{"batman": "yes"}')

This error is caused when you tried to run a method within a string. String has a few methods, but not the one you are invoking. So stop trying to invoke a method which String does not define and start looking for where you poisoned your object.

"loads" worked for me. Thank you for your solution – Amir Md Amiruzzaman Jan 13 '21 at 01:13 — Amir Md Amiruzzaman, Jan 13 '21 at 01:13

Karl Knechtel · Answer 5 · 2022-09-11T10:33:46.533

AttributeError("'str' object has no attribute 'read'",)

This means exactly what it says: something tried to find a .read attribute on the object that you gave it, and you gave it an object of type str (i.e., you gave it a string).

The error occurred here:

json.load(jsonStr)['data']['children']

Well, you aren't looking for read anywhere, so it must happen in the json.load function that you called (as indicated by the full traceback). That is because json.load is trying to .read the thing that you gave it, but you gave it jsonStr, which currently names a string (which you created by calling .read on the response).

Solution: don't call .read yourself; the function will do this, and is expecting you to give it the response directly so that it can do so.

You could also have figured this out by reading the built-in Python documentation for the function (try help(json.load), or for the entire module (try help(json)), or by checking the documentation for those functions on http://docs.python.org .

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 30 '21 at 23:12

6

Instead of json.load() use json.loads() and it would work: ex:

import json
from json import dumps

strinjJson = '{"event_type": "affected_element_added"}'
data = json.loads(strinjJson)
print(data)

answered Jul 30 '21 at 23:12

Pallav Ghose

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 08 '22 at 09:27

1

Open the file as a text file first

json_data = open("data.json", "r")

Now load it to dict

dict_data = json.load(json_data)

answered Dec 08 '22 at 09:27

Raisul Islam

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score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 08 '22 at 10:10

0

So, don't use json.load(data.read()) use json.loads(data.read()):

def findMailOfDev(fileName):
    file=open(fileName,'r')
    data=file.read();
    data=json.loads(data)
    return data['mail']

edited Jun 08 '22 at 10:10

lemon

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answered Jun 05 '22 at 05:13

Shashwat SIngh

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 17 '22 at 15:19

use json.loads() function , put the s after that ... just a mistake btw i just realized after i searched error

def getEntries (self, sub):
url = 'http://www.reddit.com/'
if (sub != ''):
    url += 'r/' + sub

request = urllib2.Request (url + 
    '.json', None, {'User-Agent' : 'Reddit desktop client by /user/RobinJ1995/'})
response = urllib2.urlopen (request)
jsonStr = response.read()

return json.loads(jsonStr)['data']['children']

try this

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 12 '23 at 22:32

0

If you need to convert string to json. Then use loads() method instead of load(). load() function uses to load data from a file so used loads() to convert string to json object.

j_obj = json.loads('["label" : "data"]')

answered Jan 12 '23 at 22:32

Chameera W. Ashan

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Why do I get "'str' object has no attribute 'read'" when trying to use `json.load` on a string?

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