json file malformed - how to find out where?

Question

I'm developing website using weatherapi. I intend to fetch weather using cityid which is in citylist.json file. Users wil enter city name, I was hoping to extract cityid from this json and use the cityid to fetch weather using api. But there is some error in json.

    if (file_exists('citylist.json')) {

        $cityArray = file_get_contents("citylist.json");

        $cityAA = json_decode($cityArray,true);

            switch (json_last_error()) {
                case JSON_ERROR_NONE:
                    echo ' - No errors';
                break;
                case JSON_ERROR_DEPTH:
                    echo ' - Maximum stack depth exceeded';
                break;
                case JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH:
                    echo ' - Underflow or the modes mismatch';
                break;
                case JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR:
                    echo ' - Unexpected control character found';
                break;
                case JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX:
                    echo ' - Syntax error, malformed JSON';
                break;
                case JSON_ERROR_UTF8:
                    echo ' - Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded';
                break;
                default:
                    echo ' - Unknown error';
                break;
            }
        print_r($cityAA);               
    }

The json is around 12mb. Here are first few lines

{
    "_id": 14256,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 48.570728,
        "lat": 34.790878
    },
    "country": "IR",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 132142
    },
    "langs": [{
        "de": "Azad Shahr"
    },
    {
        "fa": "آزادشهر"
    }],
    "name": "Azadshahr",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 514102
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 7030,
        "dist": 9,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 10
}{
    "_id": 18918,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 34.058331,
        "lat": 35.012501
    },
    "country": "CY",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 146615
    },
    "langs": [{
        "en": "Protaras"
    },
    {
        "ru": "Протарас"
    }],
    "name": "Protaras",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 20230
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 5448,
        "dist": 42,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 6
}

I've tried jsonlint but the file is too big I guess. The var_dump suggests Syntax error, malformed JSON. I cannot post the image as i'm not allowed.

How can I find out where the json is malformed?

Answer 1

This site can help you: http://jsonlint.com/

In the example provided you can't just pass 2 objects like you did. You need to put it inside an array.

 [obj,obj2]

Fixed:

[{
    "_id": 14256,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 48.570728,
        "lat": 34.790878
    },
    "country": "IR",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 132142
    },
    "langs": [{
        "de": "Azad Shahr"
    }, {
        "fa": "آزادشهر"
    }],
    "name": "Azadshahr",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 514102
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 7030,
        "dist": 9,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 10
}, {
    "_id": 18918,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 34.058331,
        "lat": 35.012501
    },
    "country": "CY",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 146615
    },
    "langs": [{
        "en": "Protaras"
    }, {
        "ru": "Протарас"
    }],
    "name": "Protaras",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 20230
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 5448,
        "dist": 42,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 6
}]

Answer 2

It looks like the file contains multiple JSON objects but not well integrated.

This is valid JSON:

{
    "_id": 14256,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 48.570728,
        "lat": 34.790878
    },
    "country": "IR",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 132142
    },
    "langs": [{
        "de": "Azad Shahr"
    },
    {
        "fa": "آزادشهر"
    }],
    "name": "Azadshahr",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 514102
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 7030,
        "dist": 9,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 10
}

And this is too:

{
    "_id": 18918,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 34.058331,
        "lat": 35.012501
    },
    "country": "CY",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 146615
    },
    "langs": [{
        "en": "Protaras"
    },
    {
        "ru": "Протарас"
    }],
    "name": "Protaras",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 20230
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 5448,
        "dist": 42,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 6
}

But how they are put together, it is not. That might be a problem of the JSON file imported or if you are generating it by yourself from the API.

A valid JSON would be formed like an array of those objects:

[{
    "_id": 14256,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 48.570728,
        "lat": 34.790878
    },
    "country": "IR",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 132142
    },
    "langs": [{
        "de": "Azad Shahr"
    }, {
        "fa": "آزادشهر"
    }],
    "name": "Azadshahr",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 514102
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 7030,
        "dist": 9,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 10
}, {
    "_id": 18918,
    "coord": {
        "lon": 34.058331,
        "lat": 35.012501
    },
    "country": "CY",
    "geoname": {
        "cl": "P",
        "code": "PPL",
        "parent": 146615
    },
    "langs": [{
        "en": "Protaras"
    }, {
        "ru": "Протарас"
    }],
    "name": "Protaras",
    "stat": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "population": 20230
    },
    "stations": [{
        "id": 5448,
        "dist": 42,
        "kf": 1
    }],
    "zoom": 6
}]

PS: You can use http://jsonlint.com/ to check valid JSON.