Python; urllib error: AttributeError: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'read'

Question

Note: This is Python 3, there is no urllib2. Also, I've tried using json.loads(), and I get this error:

TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object

I get this error if I use json.loads() and remove the .read() from response:

TypeError: expected string or buffer

>

import urllib.request
import json

response = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.reddit.com/r/all/top/.json').read()
jsonResponse = json.load(response)

for child in jsonResponse['data']['children']:
    print (child['data']['title'])

Does not work... I have no idea why.

I saved a lot of headaches by using the `http.client`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/http.client.html#examples — tuned, Feb 27 '15 at 18:13

score 105 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 30 '11 at 23:39

105

Try this:

jsonResponse = json.loads(response.decode('utf-8'))

answered Jun 30 '11 at 23:39

MRAB

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For me, it was `json.loads(request.body.decode('utf-8'))` – Qumber Aug 17 '20 at 11:35
it this bug in only 3.5 version ? – ksr Jul 23 '21 at 11:48
I have got error – reza_khalafi Mar 29 '23 at 09:40

score 43 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 30 '11 at 22:28

43

Use json.loads not json.load.

(load loads from a file-like object, loads from a string. So you could just as well omit the .read() call instead.)

answered Jun 30 '11 at 22:28

Katriel

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Does not work. If you include the .read, this error is prompted: TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object If you remove the .read(), you get this error: TypeError: expected string or buffer – Parseltongue Jun 30 '11 at 22:33

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 08 '19 at 20:57

2

I'm not familiar with python 3 yet, but it seems like urllib.request.urlopen().read() returns a byte object rather than string.

You might try to feed it into a StringIO object, or even do a str(response).

edited Dec 08 '19 at 20:57

Maarten Bodewes

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answered Jun 30 '11 at 22:34

Dog eat cat world

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 08 '19 at 20:58

0

I got the same error {AttributeError: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'read'} in python3. This worked for me later without using json:

from urllib.request import urlopen
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = 'https://someurl/'
page = urlopen(url)
html = page.read()
soup = BeautifulSoup(html)
print(soup.prettify('latin-1'))

edited Dec 08 '19 at 20:58

Maarten Bodewes

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answered Jul 17 '18 at 07:37

Banjali

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Welcome to SO. This question already has a highly up-voted accepted answer. Suggesting an alternative that, whilst it may work, does not actually address the issue asked in the OP is not that useful. See https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer – Nick Jul 17 '18 at 07:56

Python; urllib error: AttributeError: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'read'

4 Answers4

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