"JSONDecodeError: Invalid \escape" while trying to load JSON into Python dict

Question

I am trying to load JSON into a python dict:

>>> d
'[{"amount":"0","categories":["test","test2","test3"],"categoryIds":["A001G001","A003E001A001","A003G002A001","A003T001A001"]}]'

Unfortunatelly I do get an error message which I could not get around:

>>> json.loads(d, strict=False)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<console>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/json/__init__.py", line 361, in loads
    return cls(**kw).decode(s)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/json/decoder.py", line 353, in raw_decode
    obj, end = self.scan_once(s, idx)
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Invalid \escape: line 1 column 410 (char 409)

How can I load the JSON into a python dictionary?

You simplified the code too much that it no longer creates the error; nevertheless it's a duplicate of [python - simplejson.loads() get Invalid \escape: 'x' - Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4296041/simplejson-loads-get-invalid-escape-x?noredirect=1&lq=1) — user202729, Feb 17 '21 at 11:49

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 17 '20 at 17:02

There is an object within the json:

{"amount":"0","categories":["Gereizte Haut","Gesichtspflege f\xFCr allergische Haut","Insektenstiche","Sonnenallergie & Mallorca-Akne","Basispflege & Reinigung"],"categoryIds":["A001G002","HN001A002G001","HN001A002I002","HN001A002S001","HN001N001B001"],"name":"Linola akut 0,5% Creme","price":969,"pzn":"02138990"}

with the string: "Gesichtspflege f\xFCr allergische Haut" which is not valid json.

You need to get your source to encode the data properly.

These are umlaut characters in german which have been encoded differently. So, as you've mentioned with correct encoding the code would work. — Sendhilkumar Alalasundaram, Apr 17 '20 at 17:12

"JSONDecodeError: Invalid \escape" while trying to load JSON into Python dict

1 Answers1