Python Attributeerror: 'str' object has no attribute 'read'

The error Attributeerror: 'str' object has no attribute 'read' usually occurs when you are trying to read the content of a file in Python.

The stack trace of this error is as follows:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ...
    data = file.read()
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'read'

The read() function is a part of the built-in io module that’s used to read the content of a file. Calling the function from a string will cause this error.

The following examples show when this error occurs and how you can resolve it.

1. Calling read on a string object

Suppose you try to read the content of a file as follows:

file_location = "output.txt"

data = file_location.read()

Because the file_location variable is a string, calling the read() function will cause the error.

To fix this, you need to open the file first, then call the read() from the returned file object:

file_location = "output.txt"

with open(file_location, "r") as file:
    data = file.read()
    print(data)

You don’t receive an error because the read() function is being called from the file object instead of the string file_location.

2. Passing a string to json.load()

The json.load() method in Python is used to read the content of a JSON file, but you still need to open the file first with open().

Suppose you have a JSON file named data.json and you load it as follows:

import json

data = json.load("data.json")  # ❌

You’ll get the same 'str' object has no attribute 'read' error.

To avoid the error, you need to open() the file first like this:

import json

with open("data.json", 'r') as file:
    data = json.load(file)
    print(data)

After opening the file, you then pass the file object to the json.load() method.

If you already have a JSON string, then use json.loads() to decode that string:

import json

json_str = '{"name": "Nathan"}'

json_obj = json.loads(json_str)

print(json_obj["name"])  # Nathan

The json.load() method is used to decode a file content into a JSON object, while json.loads() decode a string into a JSON object.

3. Calling read on urllib module

This error may occur when you mistakenly call the read() function from a url string when using the urllib module.

Suppose you try to read the content of a website as follows:

import urllib.request

url = 'https://apple.com/'

data = url.read()  # ❌

# AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'read'

The correct way to read a website’s content is to first open the url with urllib.request.urlopen() like this:

import urllib.request

with urllib.request.urlopen('https://apple.com/') as file:
    data = file.read()
    print(data)

You can look at the print() function output to verify the fix.

Conclusion

To conclude, the error Attributeerror: 'str' object has no attribute 'read' happens when the read() function is called from a string instead of a file object.

Most likely, you’ve misunderstood how to access and read a file object, such as when calling json.load() or reading from a URL. The examples above should help you fix this error.

I hope this article was helpful. Happy coding! 😉