java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query

Question

It seems like this error message has been posted a lot, but I have not been able to come up with the proper answer.

I am following this tutorial and I can't get the Google Places Info to show up on my screen. I was looking at the LogCat and saw this:

09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query at index 127: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=41.6997688,-86.2406069&radius=1000&sensor=true&types=food|bar|store|museum|art_gallery&key=AIzaSyDdMnQpqT9pr-k6VhwesT1OBAg_qkvflxU
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at java.net.URI.create(URI.java:727)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet.<init>(HttpGet.java:75)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at com.mbau.miniproject2.ShowMapActivity$GetPlaces.doInBackground(ShowMapActivity.java:145)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at com.mbau.miniproject2.ShowMapActivity$GetPlaces.doInBackground(ShowMapActivity.java:1)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:287)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:234)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.AsyncTask$SerialExecutor$1.run(AsyncTask.java:230)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1080)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:573)
09-20 02:01:32.278: W/System.err(19832):    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:841)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832): org.json.JSONException: End of input at character 0 of 
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at org.json.JSONTokener.syntaxError(JSONTokener.java:450)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at org.json.JSONTokener.nextValue(JSONTokener.java:97)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:154)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:171)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at com.mbau.miniproject2.ShowMapActivity$GetPlaces.onPostExecute(ShowMapActivity.java:187)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at com.mbau.miniproject2.ShowMapActivity$GetPlaces.onPostExecute(ShowMapActivity.java:1)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:631)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.AsyncTask.access$600(AsyncTask.java:177)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:644)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5276)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:739)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:555)
09-20 02:01:32.388: W/System.err(19832):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

The code I have is literally the EXACT same as provided in the tutorial, with the exception of my Google API key in the URL, my Maps key in the manifest, and my main activity is called ShowMapActivity.

I'm not sure why this isn't working, but I think it has something to do with the URL, which produces the first error.

At the same time, I can't see any invalid character in the URL, and when I copy/paste the URL from LogCat into my browser, it returns a nice JSON file.

Any thoughts/possible fixes?

Thanks.

Link to my files

Answer 1

So I ended up changing my code from:

    String placesSearchStr="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/"
    +"json?location="
    +String.valueOf(lat)
    +","
    +String.valueOf(lng)
    +"&radius=5000&sensor=true"
    +"&types=food|bar|church|museum|art_gallery"
    +"&key=AIzaSyDdMnQpqT9pr-k6VhwesT1OBAg_qkvflxU";

to:

String latVal=String.valueOf(lat);
String lngVal=String.valueOf(lng);
String url;
try {
        url = "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location="
        +URLEncoder.encode(latVal, "UTF-8")
        +","
        +URLEncoder.encode(lngVal, "UTF-8")
        +"&radius="
        +URLEncoder.encode("5000", "UTF-8")
        +"&sensor="
        +URLEncoder.encode("true", "UTF-8")
        +"&types="
        +URLEncoder.encode("food|bar|church|museum|art_gallery", "UTF-8")
        +"&key="
        +URLEncoder.encode("AIzaSyDdMnQpqT9pr-k6VhwesT1OBAg_qkvflxU", "UTF-8");
        new GetPlaces().execute(url);
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

And this solved my problem.