Jackson JSON parser invalid utf-8 start byte

Question

I'm trying to parse the following JSON and I keep getting a JsonParseException:

{
   "episodes":{
      "description":"Episode 3 – Oprah's Surprise Patrol from 1\/20\/04\nTake a trip down memory lane and hear all your favorite episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show from the last 25 seasons -- everyday on your radio!"
   }
}

also fails on this JSON

{
   "episodes":{
      "description":"After 20 years in sports talk…he’s still the top dog!  Catch Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo weekday afternoons on Mad Dog Radio as he tells it like it is…Give the Doggie a call at 888-623-3646."
   }
}

Exception:

org.codehaus.jackson.JsonParseException: Invalid UTF-8 start byte 0x96
 at [Source: C:\Json Test Files\episodes.txt; line: 3, column: 33]
    at org.codehaus.jackson.JsonParser._constructError(JsonParser.java:1291)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.JsonParserMinimalBase._reportError(JsonParserMinimalBase.java:385)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.Utf8StreamParser._reportInvalidInitial(Utf8StreamParser.java:2236)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.Utf8StreamParser._reportInvalidChar(Utf8StreamParser.java:2230)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.Utf8StreamParser._finishString2(Utf8StreamParser.java:1467)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.Utf8StreamParser._finishString(Utf8StreamParser.java:1394)
    at org.codehaus.jackson.impl.Utf8StreamParser.getText(Utf8StreamParser.java:113)
    at com.niveus.jackson.Main.parseEpisodes(Main.java:37)
    at com.niveus.jackson.Main.main(Main.java:13)

Code:

    public static void main(String [] args) {
        parseEpisodes("C:\\Json Test Files\\episodes.txt");
    }
    public static void parseEpisodes(String filename) {
        JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();
        JsonParser parser = null;
        String nameField = null;
        
        try {
            parser = factory.createJsonParser(new File(filename));
            
            parser.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_UNQUOTED_CONTROL_CHARS, true);
            parser.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_BACKSLASH_ESCAPING_ANY_CHARACTER, true);
            
            JsonToken token = parser.nextToken();
            nameField = parser.getText();
            String desc = null;
            
            while (token != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
                if (nameField.equals("episodes")) {
                    while (token != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
                        if (nameField.equals("description")) {
                            parser.nextToken();
                            desc = parser.getText();
                        }
                        
                        token = parser.nextToken();
                        nameField = parser.getText();
                    }
                }
                
                token = parser.nextToken();
                nameField = parser.getText();
            }
            
            System.out.println(desc);
        } catch (JsonParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

Answer 1

The character at column 33 is –, and the reason this would be the byte 0x96 is that the file is physically encoded as Windows-1252. You need to save the file in UTF-8, windows-1252 is not a valid encoding for json. How to do this depends on what text editor you are using.

See JSON RFC:

1. Encoding

   JSON text SHALL be encoded in Unicode. The default encoding is
   UTF-8.

Answer 2

I have also faced similar issue. open your json in Notepad ++, then in encoding drop down select as UTF-8. and save the text to other file. doing this resolved the issue.