Handle JSON Decode Error when nothing returned

Question

I am parsing json data. I don\'t have an issue with parsing and I am using simplejson module. But some api requests returns empty value. Here is my example:

Answer 1

There is a rule in Python programming called "it is Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than for Permission" (in short: EAFP). It means that you should catch exceptions instead of checking values for validity.

Thus, try the following:

try:
    qByUser = byUsrUrlObj.read()
    qUserData = json.loads(qByUser).decode('utf-8')
    questionSubjs = qUserData["all"]["questions"]
except ValueError:  # includes simplejson.decoder.JSONDecodeError
    print 'Decoding JSON has failed'

EDIT: Since simplejson.decoder.JSONDecodeError actually inherits from ValueError (proof here), I simplified the catch statement by just using ValueError.