Unclosed array — unexpected end of JSON input

The array's closing bracket is missing, usually for the same transport or buffer reason as an unclosed object.

Reproduce it

The input

Fails to parse

[1, 2

Parses correctly

[1, 2]

Open this broken input in the formatter →

The fix

How to fix it

Confirm the full body arrived before parsing.

Streaming writers that never flush produce exactly this shape.

Cross-runtime

What each parser reports

Every message below was captured by running this exact input through the parser named. 19 of 21 parsers rejected it; 2 accepted it.

Parser	Exact message
CPython json.loads CPython 3.12.3	`Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 6 (char 5)` what this message means →
encoding/json Unmarshal Go go1.22.2	`unexpected end of JSON input` what this message means →
Gson Java 21.0.12	`java.io.EOFException: End of input at line 1 column 6 path $[2]` what this message means →
Gson JsonParser (lenient off) Java 21.0.12	`java.io.EOFException: End of input at line 1 column 6 path $[2]` what this message means →
hjson Node.js 22.22.2	`End of input while parsing an array (missing ']') at line 1,5 >>>1, 2 ...` what this message means →
Jackson ObjectMapper Java 21.0.12	`Unexpected end-of-input: expected close marker for Array (start marker` what this message means →
JavaScriptCore JSON.parse JavaScriptCore (Bun 1.4.1)	`JSON Parse error: Expected ']'` what this message means →
json-bigint Node.js 22.22.2	`Expected ',' instead of ''` what this message means →
JSON5 Node.js 22.22.2	`JSON5: invalid end of input at 1:6` what this message means →
JSON::PP Perl 5.038002	`, or ] expected while parsing array, at character offset 5 (before "(end of string)")` what this message means →
json_decode PHP 8.3.6	`Syntax error`
Newtonsoft.Json JsonConvert Newtonsoft.Json 13.0.3 on .NET 8.0.30	accepted — no error
Newtonsoft.Json JsonTextReader Newtonsoft.Json 13.0.3 on .NET 8.0.30	accepted — no error
orjson CPython 3.12.3	`unexpected end of data: line 1 column 6 (char 5)` what this message means →
Ruby JSON.parse Ruby 3.2.3	`unexpected token at ''`
serde_json::from_str Rust (serde_json 1.x)	`EOF while parsing a list at line 1 column 5` what this message means →
SpiderMonkey JSON.parse SpiderMonkey 115	`JSON.parse: end of data when ',' or ']' was expected at line 1 column 6 of the JSON data` what this message means →
System.Text.Json Deserialize .NET 8.0.30	`'2' is an invalid end of a number. Expected a delimiter. Path: $ \| LineNumber: 0 \| BytePositionInLine: 5.` what this message means →
System.Text.Json JsonDocument .NET 8.0.30	`'2' is an invalid end of a number. Expected a delimiter. LineNumber: 0 \| BytePositionInLine: 5.` what this message means →
ujson CPython 3.12.3	`Unexpected character found when decoding array value (2)` what this message means →
V8 JSON.parse Node.js 22.22.2	`Expected ',' or ']' after array element in JSON at position 5 (line 1 column 6)` what this message means →

Standards

What the specification says

The exact sections that govern this error. Descriptions are our paraphrase; follow the links for the normative text.

Body	Section
IETF	RFC 8259 (STD 90) §5 — Arrays An array is square brackets around zero or more values, with elements separated by commas.
Ecma International	ECMA-404, 2nd edition §7 Arrays Gives the array grammar; values are separated by commas.

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← All JSON parser errors