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: docs.python.org/3/library/http.client.html#examples — tuned
– tuned, Commented Feb 27, 2015 at 18:13

MRAB · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-30 23:39:59Z

107

Try this:

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

answered Jun 30, 2011 at 23:39

MRAB

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3 Comments

Qumber Over a year ago

For me, it was json.loads(request.body.decode('utf-8'))

ksr Over a year ago

it this bug in only 3.5 version ?

reza_khalafi Over a year ago

I have got error

Katriel · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-30 22:28:46Z

46

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, 2011 at 22:28

Katriel

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1 Comment

Parseltongue Over a year ago

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

Maarten Bodewes · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-08 20:57:39Z

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 8, 2019 at 20:57

Maarten Bodewes

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answered Jun 30, 2011 at 22:34

Dog eat cat world

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Comments

Maarten Bodewes · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-08 20:58:11Z

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 8, 2019 at 20:58

Maarten Bodewes

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answered Jul 17, 2018 at 7:37

Banjali

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