SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

For the benefit of searchers looking to solve a similar problem, you can get a similar error if your input is an empty string.

e.g.

var d = "";
var json = JSON.parse(d);

or if you are using AngularJS

var d = "";
var json = angular.fromJson(d);

In chrome it resulted in ‘Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected end of input’, but Firebug showed it as ‘JSON.parse: unexpected end of data at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data’.

Sure most people won’t be caught out by this, but I hadn’t protected the method and it resulted in this error.

Leave a Comment