I am loading a JSON from a URL. The loading appears to work, but Decoding fails with this message:

Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "The given data was not valid JSON.", underlyingError: Optional(Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3840 "Invalid value around line 1, column 153." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Invalid value around line 1, column 153., NSJSONSerializationErrorIndex=153}))

• Character 153 is at the end of line 1 Here is the start of the JSON: {"RegattaID": "10162","RegattaName": "DF 65 Florida Travelers Trophy Gerd Petersen Memorial","startDate": "3/4/2023","endDate": "3/4/2023","Skippers":[ {"RegattaMemberRegID": "10690","SailNo": "222","HullNo": "222","Firstname": "George","LastName": "Balaschak","Email": "georgeb@tlccar.com","Phone": "","Cell": "561 844-5411"},

I am running out of ideas and a little help would be welcome. Thanks...

Here is my code:

import SwiftUI
import Foundation

struct AMYARegatta: Codable, Identifiable {
    var id: String { RegattaID }

    var RegattaID: String = "0000"
    var RegattaName: String = "xxxx"
    var startDate: Date = Date.now 
    var endDate: Date = Date.now 
    var Skippers: [AMYAskip] = []
}
struct AMYAskip: Codable {
    let RegattaMemberRegID: String
    let SailNo: String
    let HullNo: String
    let Firstname: String
    let LastName: String
    let Email: String
    let Phone: String
    let Cell: String
}

struct AddAMYARegatta: View {

    @EnvironmentObject var regattaList : RegattaList

    @Environment(\.dismiss) var dismiss

    @State private var amyaRegatta = AMYARegatta()

        var body: some View {
        Text("Regatta: \(amyaRegatta.RegattaName)")

            .task {
                await loadAMYA(AMYARegattaID: "10162")
            }

    }
    func loadAMYA(AMYARegattaID: String) async {
        guard let url = URL(string: "https://www.theamya.org/RegattaRegReportJson.asp?RgID=\(AMYARegattaID)") else {
            print("Invalid URL")
            return
        }
        print(url)

        let decoder = JSONDecoder()
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = "MM-dd-yyyy"
        decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = .formatted(formatter)

        do {
            let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(from: url)
            print("data = \(data)")

            do {
                let loaded = try decoder.decode(AMYARegatta.self, from: data)
                print(loaded as Any)
                print("decoded = \(loaded)")
            } catch DecodingError.dataCorrupted(let context) {
                print(context)
            } catch DecodingError.keyNotFound(let key, let context) {
                print("Key '\(key)' not found:", context.debugDescription)
                print("codingPath:", context.codingPath)
            } catch DecodingError.valueNotFound(let value, let context) {
                print("Value '\(value)' not found:", context.debugDescription)
                print("codingPath:", context.codingPath)
            } catch DecodingError.typeMismatch(let type, let context) {
                print("Type '\(type)' mismatch:", context.debugDescription)
                print("codingPath:", context.codingPath)

                } catch {
                print(error)
                fatalError("Failed to decode ")
            }

        } catch {
            print("Invalid data")
        }

        var AMYASkippers: [Skipper] = []
        for Askip in amyaRegatta.Skippers {
            let newSkip = Skipper()
            newSkip.RegattaMemberRegID = Askip.RegattaMemberRegID
            newSkip.id = UUID()
            newSkip.firstName = Askip.Firstname
            newSkip.lastName = Askip.LastName
            newSkip.sailNum = Int(Askip.SailNo) ?? 0
            newSkip.boatNum = Int(Askip.HullNo) ?? 0
            newSkip.Phone = Askip.Phone
            newSkip.Email = Askip.Email
            newSkip.Cell = Askip.Cell
            AMYASkippers.append(newSkip)
        }

        let newRegatta = Regatta()
        newRegatta.id = UUID()
        newRegatta.name = amyaRegatta.RegattaName
        newRegatta.startDate = amyaRegatta.startDate
        newRegatta.endDate = amyaRegatta.endDate
        newRegatta.skippers = AMYASkippers
        regattaList.add(newRegatta)
        regattaList.save()
    }
}

@rooster! nice find!

What tool did you use to dump the raw JSON?

I used https://jsonformatter.org/ and it reported this was valid JSON.

You picked a better tool!

I just dumped the raw data in a playground using this:

print(String(decoding: data, as: UTF8.self))

But I also checked it out in RapidAPI (formerly known as Paw), which is how I found the info about the Content-Type header.

I used https://jsonformatter.org/ and it reported this was valid JSON.

Because, I assume, you plugged the API URL into a browser and then copied the resulting JSON out of the browser window and into the JSONFormatter text box. The browser wouldn't show you the <br> and other tags but would convert them to display text, which means you would miss them when you copy/paste the JSON.

That's also why @GerryCSwift's pasting in of the first 300 characters or so of the JSON was kind of useless for diagnosing the problem; the round trip through the browser erased all evidence of the invalid characters.

Thanks @roosterboy ! I had copied and pasted the json from my browser into various validating sites and created a file which decoded fine! Of course, my browser had already suppressed all that html junk ;-)