I can't parse a json file with python

Question

first post here.

I've been using Python for a while now, but I'm stuck with a very simple case.

I just want to parse a JSON file with simplejson module: here is the code:

import simplejson

with open('myjsontest.json', 'r') as data_file:
    print data_file.read()
    session = simplejson.load(data_file, strict=False)

And here is the JSON file named myjsontest.json:

[
      {
          "Test1": 1,
          "Test2": 2,
          "Test3": 3,
          "Test4": 4
      }
]

The JSON file is in the same folder as the python file.

I got this as a result:

[
      {
          "Test1": 1,
          "Test2": 2,
          "Test3": 3,
          "Test4": 4
      }
  ]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".\test.py", line 8, in <module>
    session = simplejson.load(data_file, strict=False)
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\__init__.py", line 459, in loa
d
    use_decimal=use_decimal, **kw)
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\__init__.py", line 533, in loa
ds
    return cls(encoding=encoding, **kw).decode(s)
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\decoder.py", line 370, in deco
de
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s)
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\decoder.py", line 400, in raw_
decode
    return self.scan_once(s, idx=_w(s, idx).end())
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\scanner.py", line 127, in scan
_once
    return _scan_once(string, idx)
  File "C:\Users\Gordon\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\simplejson-3.8.1-py2.7.egg\simplejson\scanner.py", line 87, in _scan
_once
    raise JSONDecodeError(errmsg, string, idx)
simplejson.scanner.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

I think think I may have a problem in my OS/python setup? Python 32b 2.7.11 is installed with Anaconda on a Windows7 64b.

Thanks if you can help.

Answer 1

Once you read a file, its stream is at the end and cannot be read from anymore. Your code should work if you remove the print data_file.read() statement, or you .seek() back to the beginning of the file afterwards.