ValueError: Expected object or value when reading json as pandas dataframe

Question

Sample data:

{
   "_id": "OzE5vaa3p7",
   "categories": [
      {
         "__type": "Pointer",
         "className": "Category",
         "objectId": "nebCwWd2Fr"
      }
   ],
   "isActive": true,
   "imageUrl": "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/shopgro-1376.appspot.com/o/Barcode%20Data%20Upload%28II%29%2FAnil_puttu_flour_500g.png?alt=media&token=9cf63197-0925-4360-a31a-4675f4f46ae2",
   "barcode": "8908001921015",
   "isFmcg": true,
   "itemName": "Anil puttu flour 500g",
   "mrp": 58,
   "_created_at": "2016-10-02T13:49:03.281Z",
   "_updated_at": "2017-02-22T08:48:09.548Z"
}

{
   "_id": "ENPCL8ph1p",
   "categories": [
      {
         "__type": "Pointer",
         "className": "Category",
         "objectId": "B4nZeUHmVK"
      }
   ],
   "isActive": true,
   "imageUrl": "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/kirananearby-9eaa8.appspot.com/o/Barcode%20data%20upload%2FYippee_Magic_Masala_Noodles,_70_g.png?alt=media&token=d9e47bd7-f847-4d6f-9460-4be8dbcaae00",
   "barcode": "8901725181222",
   "isFmcg": true,
   "itemName": "Yippee Magic Masala Noodles, 70 G",
   "mrp": 12,
   "_created_at": "2016-10-02T13:49:03.284Z",
   "_updated_at": "2017-02-22T08:48:09.074Z"
}

I tried:

import pandas as pd
data= pd.read_json('Data.json')

getting error ValueError: Expected object or value

also

import json
with open('gdb.json') as datafile:
    data = json.load(datafile)
retail = pd.DataFrame(data)

error: json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data: line 2 column 1 (char 509)

with open('gdb.json') as datafile:
for line in datafile:
    data = json.loads(line)
retail = pd.DataFrame(data)

error: json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data: line 1 column 577 (char 576)

How to read this json into pandas

Answer 1

Your JSON is malformed.

ValueError: Expected object or value can occur if you mistyped the file name. Does Data.json exist? I noticed for your other attempts you used gdb.json.

Once you confirm the file name is correct, you have to fix your JSON. What you have now is two disconnected records separated by a space. Lists in JSON must be valid arrays inside square brackets and separated by a comma: [{record1}, {record2}, ...]

Also, for pandas you should put your array under a root element called "data":

{ "data": [ {record1}, {record2}, ... ] }

Your JSON should end up looking like this:

{"data":
    [{
        "_id": "OzE5vaa3p7",
        "categories": [
            {
                "__type": "Pointer",
                "className": "Category",
                "objectId": "nebCwWd2Fr"
            }
        ],
        "isActive": true,
        "imageUrl": "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/shopgro-1376.appspot.com/o/Barcode%20Data%20Upload%28II%29%2FAnil_puttu_flour_500g.png?alt=media&token=9cf63197-0925-4360-a31a-4675f4f46ae2",
        "barcode": "8908001921015",
        "isFmcg": true,
        "itemName": "Anil puttu flour 500g",
        "mrp": 58,
        "_created_at": "2016-10-02T13:49:03.281Z",
        "_updated_at": "2017-02-22T08:48:09.548Z"
    }
    ,
    {
        "_id": "ENPCL8ph1p",
        "categories": [
            {
                "__type": "Pointer",
                "className": "Category",
                "objectId": "B4nZeUHmVK"
            }
        ],
        "isActive": true,
        "imageUrl": "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/kirananearby-9eaa8.appspot.com/o/Barcode%20data%20upload%2FYippee_Magic_Masala_Noodles,_70_g.png?alt=media&token=d9e47bd7-f847-4d6f-9460-4be8dbcaae00",
        "barcode": "8901725181222",
        "isFmcg": true,
        "itemName": "Yippee Magic Masala Noodles, 70 G",
        "mrp": 12,
        "_created_at": "2016-10-02T13:49:03.284Z",
        "_updated_at": "2017-02-22T08:48:09.074Z"
    }]}

Finally, pandas calls this format split orientation, so you have to load it as follows:

df = pd.read_json('gdb.json', orient='split')

df now contains the following data frame:

          _id                                                   categories  isActive                                                     imageUrl        barcode  isFmcg                           itemName  mrp                      _created_at                      _updated_at
0  OzE5vaa3p7  [{'__type': 'Pointer', 'className': 'Category', 'objectI...      True  https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/shopgro-1376...  8908001921015    True              Anil puttu flour 500g   58 2016-10-02 13:49:03.281000+00:00 2017-02-22 08:48:09.548000+00:00
1  ENPCL8ph1p  [{'__type': 'Pointer', 'className': 'Category', 'objectI...      True  https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/kirananearby...  8901725181222    True  Yippee Magic Masala Noodles, 70 G   12 2016-10-02 13:49:03.284000+00:00 2017-02-22 08:48:09.074000+00:00

Answer 2

I got the same error, read the function documentation and play around with different parameters.

I solved it by using the one below,

data= pd.read_json('Data.json', lines=True)

you can try out other things like

data= pd.read_json('Data.json', lines=True, orient='records')

data= pd.read_json('Data.json', orient=str)

Answer 3

you should be ensure that the terminal directory is the same with the file directory (when this error occurs for me, because I used vscode, is means for me that the terminal directory in the vscode is not the same with my python file that I want to execute)

Answer 4

I encountered this error message today, and in my case the problem was that the encoding of the text file was UTF-8-BOM instead of UTF-8, which is the default for read_json(). This can be solved by specifying the encoding:

data= pd.read_json('Data.json', encoding = 'utf-8-sig')