Displaying better error message than “No JSON object could be decoded”

Question

Python code to load data from some long complicated JSON file:

with open(filename, \"r\") as f:
  data = json.loads(f.read())

(note: the be

Answer 1

The accepted answer is the easiest one to fix the problem. But in case you are not allowed to install the simplejson due to your company policy, I propose below solution to fix the particular issue of "using comma on the last item in a list":

1. Create a child class "JSONLintCheck" to inherite from class "JSONDecoder" and override the init method of the class "JSONDecoder" like below:

   def __init__(self, encoding=None, object_hook=None, parse_float=None,parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, strict=True,object_pairs_hook=None)        
           super(JSONLintCheck,self).__init__(encoding=None, object_hook=None,      parse_float=None,parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, strict=True,object_pairs_hook=None)
           self.scan_once = make_scanner(self)
   

2. make_scanner is a new function that used to override the 'scan_once' method of the above class. And here is code for it：

  1 #!/usr/bin/env python
  2 from json import JSONDecoder
  3 from json import decoder
  4 import re
  5
  6 NUMBER_RE = re.compile(
  7     r'(-?(?:0|[1-9]\d*))(\.\d+)?([eE][-+]?\d+)?',
  8     (re.VERBOSE | re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL))
  9
 10 def py_make_scanner(context):
 11     parse_object = context.parse_object
 12     parse_array = context.parse_array
 13     parse_string = context.parse_string
 14     match_number = NUMBER_RE.match
 15     encoding = context.encoding
 16     strict = context.strict
 17     parse_float = context.parse_float
 18     parse_int = context.parse_int
 19     parse_constant = context.parse_constant
 20     object_hook = context.object_hook
 21     object_pairs_hook = context.object_pairs_hook
 22
 23     def _scan_once(string, idx):
 24         try:
 25             nextchar = string[idx]
 26         except IndexError:
 27             raise ValueError(decoder.errmsg("Could not get the next character",string,idx))
 28             #raise StopIteration
 29
 30         if nextchar == '"':
 31             return parse_string(string, idx + 1, encoding, strict)
 32         elif nextchar == '{':
 33             return parse_object((string, idx + 1), encoding, strict,
 34                 _scan_once, object_hook, object_pairs_hook)
 35         elif nextchar == '[':
 36             return parse_array((string, idx + 1), _scan_once)
 37         elif nextchar == 'n' and string[idx:idx + 4] == 'null':
 38             return None, idx + 4
 39         elif nextchar == 't' and string[idx:idx + 4] == 'true':
 40             return True, idx + 4
 41         elif nextchar == 'f' and string[idx:idx + 5] == 'false':
 42             return False, idx + 5
 43
 44         m = match_number(string, idx)
 45         if m is not None:
 46             integer, frac, exp = m.groups()
 47             if frac or exp:
 48                 res = parse_float(integer + (frac or '') + (exp or ''))
 49             else:
 50                 res = parse_int(integer)
 51             return res, m.end()
 52         elif nextchar == 'N' and string[idx:idx + 3] == 'NaN':
 53             return parse_constant('NaN'), idx + 3
 54         elif nextchar == 'I' and string[idx:idx + 8] == 'Infinity':
 55             return parse_constant('Infinity'), idx + 8
 56         elif nextchar == '-' and string[idx:idx + 9] == '-Infinity':
 57             return parse_constant('-Infinity'), idx + 9
 58         else:
 59             #raise StopIteration   # Here is where needs modification
 60             raise ValueError(decoder.errmsg("Expecting propert name enclosed in double quotes",string,idx))
 61     return _scan_once
 62
 63 make_scanner = py_make_scanner

3. Better put the 'make_scanner' function together with the new child class into a same file.