Python error load JSON code of google API

Question

I am using google geocode API to test the following Python3.5 code but receive the error below.

raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None >JSONDecodeError: Expecting value

Here are the codes:

import urllib
import json

serviceurl = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?'

while True:
    address = input('Enter location: ')
    if len(address) < 1 : break

    url = serviceurl + urllib.parse.urlencode({'sensor':'false',
       'address': address})
    print ('Retrieving', url)
    uh = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
    data = uh.read()
    print ('Retrieved',len(data),'characters')

    js = json.loads(str(data))

Any idea about why I have the error.

Answer 1

The error arises because the "data" is of type bytes so you have to decode it into a string before using json.loads to turn it into a json object. So to solve the problem:

uh = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
data = uh.read()
print ('Retrieved',len(data),'characters')

js = json.loads(data.decode("utf-8"))

Also, str(data) in the code you share will work in Python 2.x but not in Python 3.x because str() doesn't turn bytes into a string in 3.x.