advanced patterns with Python 2.7 `requests` library when handling JSON responses from a REST API
I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer. I'm reviewing some code and Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me. I'm using the `requests` library (version 2.18.4) to make calls to a REST API that returns JSON data. Occasionally, the response from the API includes additional metadata that seems to break Python's JSON decoding. Specifically, I'm working with a `ValueError` with the message `Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)` when trying to parse the response. Here's an example of the code I'm using: ```python import requests url = 'https://api.example.com/data' response = requests.get(url) if response.status_code == 200: try: data = response.json() except ValueError as e: print('behavior parsing JSON:', e) print('Response content:', response.content) else: print('Request failed with status code:', response.status_code) ``` I've checked the API documentation, and it looks like the response should always be in valid JSON format. However, sometimes I receive responses that are just empty strings or contain some unexpected characters at the beginning. I've tried logging the raw response content as shown above, but it still throws the same behavior before I even get to that point. I've also attempted to manually inspect the response content by adding a few debug prints: ```python print('Raw response content:', response.content) ``` This happens sporadically, and I need to replicate the scenario consistently, which makes it difficult to debug. Has anyone else faced similar issues with the `requests` library in Python 2.7 when handling JSON responses? Is there a way to handle these cases better or a method to validate the JSON before attempting to parse it? My development environment is Windows. What's the best practice here? I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. This issue appeared after updating to Python 2.7 3.11. What are your experiences with this? This is part of a larger microservice I'm building. Thanks in advance!