Python: requests' .json() method isn't working

Question

I made this simple script to test this API:

import requests
res = requests.get("https://icanhazdadjoke.com/")
print(res.json())

but I get the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
    print(res.json())
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/requests/models.py", line 898, in json
    return complexjson.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/simplejson/__init__.py", line 525, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/simplejson/decoder.py", line 370, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/simplejson/decoder.py", line 400, in raw_decode
    return self.scan_once(s, idx=_w(s, idx).end())
simplejson.errors.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

I tested the API with curl -H "Accept: application/json" https://icanhazdadjoke.com/ and it returns OK:

{"id":"JeF69xAQSnb","joke":"A red and a blue ship have just collided in the Caribbean. Apparently the survivors are marooned.","status":200}

I also tested with other APIs and I always seem to get this error. I'm trying to learn about how to use APIs, so I'm kind of lost.

Your curl command sets the correct header and the Python doesn't. Print `res.text()` and you'll see it's returning the HTML you'd see if you navigated your browser to the URL. — ggorlen, Mar 03 '21 at 00:18
Does this answer your question? [Using headers with the Python requests library's get method](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6260457/using-headers-with-the-python-requests-librarys-get-method). Specifically, use `requests.get(url, headers={"accept": "application/json"})` — ggorlen, Mar 03 '21 at 00:20

Python: requests' .json() method isn't working

0 Answers0