JSONException: Value of type java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

Question

I have a JSON file with 2 JSON-Arrays in it: One Array for routes and one Array for sights.

A route should consist of several sights where the user gets navigated to. Unfortunately I am getting the error:

JSONException: Value of type java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

Here are my variables and the code that parses the JSON-File:

private InputStream is = null;
private String json = "";
private JSONObject jObj = null;

try {
    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "iso-8859-1"), 8);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    String line = null;
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
        sb.append(line + "\n");
    }
    is.close();
    // hier habe ich das JSON-File als String
    json = sb.toString();
    Log.i("JSON Parser", json);
} catch (Exception e) {
    Log.e("Buffer Error", "Error converting result " + e.toString());
}

// try parse the string to a JSON object
try {
    jObj = new JSONObject(json);
} catch (JSONException e) {
    Log.e("JSON Parser", "Error parsing data " + e.toString());
}

// return JSON String
return jObj;
}

Log.i("JSON Parser", json); shows me that at the beginning of the generated string there is a strange sign:

but the error happens here:

try {
    jObj = new JSONObject(json);
} catch (JSONException e) {
    Log.e("JSON Parser", "Error parsing data " + e.toString());
}

04-22 14:01:05.043: E/JSON Parser(5868): Error parsing data org.json.JSONException: Value //STRANGE SIGN HERE // of type java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

anybody has a clue on how to get rid of these signs in order to create the JSONObject?

Answer 1

Reason is some un-wanted characters was added when you compose the String. The temp solution is

return new JSONObject(json.substring(json.indexOf("{"), json.lastIndexOf("}") + 1));

But try to remove hidden characters on source String.