Python Forum

I am learning python and having a problem with reading .json files. There are 2 reads, one for status.json and the other for schedue.json
The code shown below works just fine, unless you un-comment the last two lines.
Why is the second read causing errors?

import os, sys, time, datetime, json

def WriteStatusJSON(control, pump, zones, ontime):
    update = {"control": control, "pump": pump, "zones": zones, "ontime": ontime}
    with open('status.json', 'w') as outfile:
        json.dump(update, outfile)
    outfile.close()

def ReadStatusJSON():
    with open('status.json') as infile:
        data = json.load(infile)
    infile.close()
    control = data["control"]
    zones = data["zones"]
    pump = data["pump"]
    ontime = data["ontime"]
    if ontime != None:
        hour = ontime[0]
        minute = ontime[1]
    return data

def WriteScheduleJSON(weekdays, ontime, zones):
    update = {"weekdays": weekdays, "ontime": ontime, "zones": zones}
    with open('schedule.json', 'w') as outfile:
        json.dump(update, outfile)
    outfile.close()

def ReadScheduleJSON():
    with open('schedule.json') as infile:
      data = json.load(infile)
    infile.close()
    weekdays = data["weekdays"]
    ontime = data["ontime"]
    hour = ontime[0]
    minute = ontime[1]
    zones = data["zones"]
    return data

status = ReadStatusJSON()
print(status['control'])
#schedule = ReadScheduleJSON()
#print(schedule['weekdays'])

Here is the status.json file contents:

Quote:{"control": "Start", "zones": [[5, 15]], "pump": false, "ontime": [13, 25]}

Here is the schedule.json file contents:

Quote:{"zones": [[1, 10], [2, 10], [3, 10], [4, 10], [5, 10], [6, 10]], "weekdays": [1, 3, 5], "ontime": [5, 30]}

What's the error?

Also, why are you closing your files? with does that for you. If you want to close things yourself, don't use with :p

I didn't know with closed the files... I'll change that, THANKS!

Here are the errors:

Error:
Auto
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "crash.py", line 41, in <module>
   schedule = ReadScheduleJSON()
 File "crash.py", line 30, in ReadScheduleJSON
   data = json.load(infile)
 File "C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\lib\json\__init__.py", line 268, in load
   parse_constant=parse_constant, object_pairs_hook=object_pairs_hook, **kw)
 File "C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\lib\json\__init__.py", line 319, in loads
   return _default_decoder.decode(s)
 File "C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\lib\json\decoder.py", line 339, in decode
   obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
 File "C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\lib\json\decoder.py", line 357, in raw_decode
   raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)


------------------
(program exited with code: 1)

Press any key to continue . . .

I opened schedule.json with a hex editor and found there were 3 unprintable characters in the file before the opening brace '{'. Once removed, the file works just fine.

Now to find out why those get in there, but that's a different problem.

Case closed.