Why am I getting a 'JSONDecodeError: Expecting Value: Line 1, Column 1' when parsing JSON data?

JSONDecodeError: Expecting Value: Line 1, Column 1

Problem:

An error occurs when attempting to decode JSON using the line "return json.loads(response_json)", prompting "Expecting value: line 1, column 1 (char 0)."

Analysis:

The error suggests that the "response_json" variable, which holds the JSON response, is either empty or malformed. Several factors could contribute to this issue:

• Empty Response Body: Verify that the API call is returning a non-empty response body.
• Non-200 Status Code: Ensure that the API call results in a 200-range status code. Errors like 404 (Not Found) can produce an empty response.
• Content-Type Header: Check the Content-Type header of the response to confirm that it indicates a JSON response.

Solution:

To resolve the issue, consider the following:

• Check for Empty Response: Use an if statement to verify that the "response_json" variable is not empty before attempting to decode it.
• Catch the Exception: Enclose the "json.loads" call within a try/except block to handle the JSONDecodeError.
• Use a Robust HTTP Library: Replace the usage of pycurl with a more user-friendly library like Requests or httpx, which provide better JSON support.

Alternative Implementations:

Using Requests:

import requests

response = requests.get(url)
response.raise_for_status()  # raises exception when not a 2xx response
if response.status_code != 204:
    return response.json()

Using httpx:

import httpx

async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
    response = await client.get(url)
    response.raise_for_status()  # raises exception when not a 2xx response
    if response.status_code != 204:
        return response.json()

Additional Notes:

• The simplejson library is not necessary as the Python standard library provides a similar "json" module with JSON encoding and decoding capabilities.
• UTF-8 decoding is handled automatically by the "json.loads" method.
• Consider using a JSON validator or linter to ensure that the JSON response is well-formed.

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