Loading a file with more than one line of JSON into Pandas

Question

I am trying to read in a JSON file into Python pandas (0.14.0) data frame. Here is the first line line of the JSON file:

{"votes": {"funny": 0, "useful": 0, "cool": 0}, "user_id": "P_Mk0ygOilLJo4_WEvabAA", "review_id": "OeT5kgUOe3vcN7H6ImVmZQ", "stars": 3, "date": "2005-08-26", "text": "This is a pretty typical cafe.  The sandwiches and wraps are good but a little overpriced and the food items are the same.  The chicken caesar salad wrap is my favorite here but everything else is pretty much par for the course.", "type": "review", "business_id": "Jp9svt7sRT4zwdbzQ8KQmw"}

I am trying do the following:df = pd.read_json(path).

I am getting the following error (with full traceback):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/d/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.py", line 198, in read_json
    date_unit).parse()
  File "/Users/d/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.py", line 266, in parse
    self._parse_no_numpy()
  File "/Users/d/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.py", line 483, in _parse_no_numpy
    loads(json, precise_float=self.precise_float), dtype=None)
ValueError: Trailing data

What is the Trailing data error? How do I read it into a data frame?

Following some suggestions, here are few lines of the .json file:

{"votes": {"funny": 0, "useful": 0, "cool": 0}, "user_id": "P_Mk0ygOilLJo4_WEvabAA", "review_id": "OeT5kgUOe3vcN7H6ImVmZQ", "stars": 3, "date": "2005-08-26", "text": "This is a pretty typical cafe.  The sandwiches and wraps are good but a little overpriced and the food items are the same.  The chicken caesar salad wrap is my favorite here but everything else is pretty much par for the course.", "type": "review", "business_id": "Jp9svt7sRT4zwdbzQ8KQmw"}
{"votes": {"funny": 0, "useful": 0, "cool": 0}, "user_id": "TNJRTBrl0yjtpAACr1Bthg", "review_id": "qq3zF2dDUh3EjMDuKBqhEA", "stars": 3, "date": "2005-11-23", "text": "I agree with other reviewers - this is a pretty typical financial district cafe.  However, they have fantastic pies.  I ordered three pies for an office event (apple, pumpkin cheesecake, and pecan) - all were delicious, particularly the cheesecake.  The sucker weighed in about 4 pounds - no joke.\n\nNo surprises on the cafe side - great pies and cakes from the catering business.", "type": "review", "business_id": "Jp9svt7sRT4zwdbzQ8KQmw"}
{"votes": {"funny": 0, "useful": 0, "cool": 0}, "user_id": "H_mngeK3DmjlOu595zZMsA", "review_id": "i3eQTINJXe3WUmyIpvhE9w", "stars": 3, "date": "2005-11-23", "text": "Decent enough food, but very overpriced. Just a large soup is almost $5. Their specials are $6.50, and with an overpriced soda or juice, it's approaching $10. A bit much for a cafe lunch!", "type": "review", "business_id": "Jp9svt7sRT4zwdbzQ8KQmw"}

This .json file I am using contains one JSON object in each line as per the specification.

I tried the jsonlint.com website as suggested and it gives the following error:

Parse error on line 14:
...t7sRT4zwdbzQ8KQmw"}{    "votes": {
----------------------^
Expecting 'EOF', '}', ',', ']'

Answer 1

From version 0.19.0 of Pandas you can use the lines parameter, like so:

import pandas as pd

data = pd.read_json('/path/to/file.json', lines=True)