Mongodb - Mongoimport error invalid character

Question

I tried to import a simple json file using mongoimport and i get the following error

PER-MacBook-Pro:/AJ$ mongoimport --db test --collection samplePM --file /users/AJ/Documents/Development/ETLwork/Dummydata/Penguin_Players.json
2015-06-16T09:53:57.291-0400    connected to: localhost
2015-06-16T09:53:57.293-0400    Failed: error processing document #1: invalid character '\\' looking for beginning of object key string
2015-06-16T09:53:57.293-0400    imported 0 documents

Sample json file is as follows:

      {  
         "position":"Right Wing",
         "id":8465166,
         "weight":200,
         "height":"6' 0\"",
         "imageUrl":"http://1.cdn.nhle.com/photos/mugs/8465166.jpg",
         "birthplace":"Seria, BRN",
         "age":37,
         "name":"Craig Adams",
         "birthdate":"April 26, 1977",
         "number":27
      },
      {  
         "position":"Right Wing",
         "id":8475761,
         "weight":195,
         "height":"6' 2\"",
         "imageUrl":"http://1.cdn.nhle.com/photos/mugs/8475761.jpg",
         "birthplace":"Gardena, CA, USA",
         "age":23,
         "name":"Beau Bennett",
         "birthdate":"November 27, 1991",
         "number":19
      }

Am I doing something wrong here?

Seems you have non "UTF-8" characters in there that your sample is not showing — user3561036
– user3561036, Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 14:15

Ardhi · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-10 09:11:53Z

7

I was able to get away with using --jsonArray tag, giving the file full path, and modified it adding bracket at the beginning and at the end,

[{"my":"json","file":"imported"},{"my":"cool","file":"succeeded"}]

mongoimport --db myCoolDb --collection myCoolColl --file /path/to/my/imported/file.json --jsonArray

answered Sep 10, 2017 at 9:11

Ardhi

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1 Comment

Gabriel Fair Over a year ago

fyi --jsonArray is limited to imports of 16 MB or smaller.

Winter · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-01 09:05:22Z

6

I got the same error while importing json data. Instead use the .bson data using mongorestore command.

mongorestore -d <db> -c <collection> <.bson-file>

Use --drop if you want to drop the existing data in the collection.

answered Feb 1, 2019 at 9:05

Winter

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Comments

Ak040 · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-16 17:04:20Z

5

The comment about non "UTF-8" characters was helpful.

It seems like there is a problem with creating json documents using textedit in Mac. I could not find these non UTF-8 characters but i created the same file using vi test.json in mac shell. I pasted the contents, saved the file and used mongoimport. It works now.

Thanks

answered Jun 16, 2015 at 17:04

Ak040

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4 Comments

zero_cool Over a year ago

Had the same issue - ended up creating the json document in a sublime text - error solved.

Rubén Over a year ago

encoding UTF-8 without BOM works for me stackoverflow.com/questions/2223882/…

Mohd. Shoaib Over a year ago

Convert your object into an array and then use --jsonArray and --legacy at the end of your mongoimport url . working fine

opyate Over a year ago

In TextEdit, try Format -> Make Plain Text. This goes to plain text from Rich Text, and won't mess up your formatting anymore.

JP Lew · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-26 00:06:38Z

1

I was getting Failed: error processing document #112783: invalid character ',' looking for beginning of value because one of my objects was formatted improperly. Notice how "psychosurgery" is missing curly braces:

{
  "word": "psychosurgeons",
  "firstLetter": "p"
}
  " psychosurgery",
{
  "word": "psychosurgical",
  "firstLetter": "p"
}

Since there are over 600,000 lines in the file I'm trying to import, this would have been tough to find manually.

So I ran the same mongoimport command with full verbosity (-vvvvv) enabled, and the script stopped right on the problematic object. See mongoimport --help for more info.

Hope this helps someone.

answered Jan 26, 2018 at 0:06

JP Lew

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Comments

ThomasDeLange · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-05 11:40:16Z

0

I got the same problem because I used texteditor on the mac. The solution was to convert the file to plain text. Make sure the extension ends in .json because texteditor wants to put .txt at the end.

answered Nov 5, 2018 at 11:40

ThomasDeLange

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1 Comment

Christopher G Over a year ago

Same as above, didn't help, this is how I had already saved the file.

Ashiq KS · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-04 11:10:36Z

0

Just open a text file, copy all the data to the newly created text file. While saving the text file select the option 'UTF-8' in the Encoding drop down and later change the text file to JSON or CSV by renaming.

Then import the file as usual as it is.

answered Jan 4, 2019 at 11:10

Ashiq KS

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Mike Mulaffer · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-27 07:07:28Z

0

if you used mongoexport to download use mongoimport to upload or if you use mongodump to download use mongorestore to upload because i used to download with mongodump and tried to upload with mongoimport i was getting error processing document #1: invalid character '\u008c'error after i tried with mongorestore it was fine

answered Apr 27, 2022 at 7:07

Mike Mulaffer

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