GoogleTrans API Error - Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Question

I am having this error when translating thousands of text data in an iteration:

Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

My code for translating big amounts of text:

translatedList = []
for index, row in df.iterrows():
    newrow = copy.deepcopy(row)
    try:
        # translate the 'text' column
        translated = translator.translate(row['text'], dest='en')
        newrow['translated'] = translated.text
    except Exception as e:
        print(str(e))
        continue
    translatedList.append(newrow)

I receive this error after translating about 2-3k rows.

Ecstasy

Answer 1

I kind of figured out the problem. I think that this is about Google API's request limit.

I solved this by reinitializing the translator API on every iteration:

import copy
from googletrans import Translator

translatedList = []
for index, row in df.iterrows():
    # REINITIALIZE THE API
    translator = Translator()
    newrow = copy.deepcopy(row)
    try:
        # translate the 'text' column
        translated = translator.translate(row['text'], dest='en')
        newrow['translated'] = translated.text
    except Exception as e:
        print(str(e))
        continue
    translatedList.append(newrow)

Ecstasy

I could find two older questions (here and here) which actually relate this to a character limit. Weirdly enough, they mention a 15k limit which I cannot find in relevant docs (The questions are more recent than latest updates to quotas. In any case this is not an informative error message... – Lendlease

Whether it is related to the 15k limit or not, the error does not provide any useful information as you say. However you are not blocked by any limit if you initialize the API each time. – Ecstasy

Answer 2

This is what I had to do to bypass their API call restriction... I use a VPN, specifically Nord-Vpn, so to do it the way I did you would need to be able to connect/disconnect from/to a VPN through the terminal...

    def translate_text(text, dest_language="en"):
        # Used to translate using the googletrans library
        import json
        translator = googletrans.Translator()
        try:
            translation = translator.translate(text=text, dest=dest_language)
        except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
            # api call restriction
            process = subprocess.Popen(["nordvpn", "d"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
            process.wait()
            process = subprocess.Popen(["nordvpn", "c", "canada"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
            process.wait()
            return Process_Data.translate_text(text=text, dest_language=dest_language)
        return translation

Streamy

This is a very interesting comment. I'm having the same issue, could you please go deeper on this method Im new on all this things. I do not how to use the vpn you mention – Jacquerie

The googletrans api limits an IP address to a certain amount of calls within a certain amount of time. Because I needed to make a lot of calls, I decided to use my VPN which allows me to change my IP address. My code above detects when googletrans's API restricts a call, "except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError", and using the library "import subprocess" I execute commands to change my VPN server and then try an make the API call again, now with a different IP address. – Streamy

That's great, unfortunately I don't have the experience to make this. What would I need in order to make your code work for me? Is it necessary to install/configurate anything? – Jacquerie

You'll need to install a VPN on your Windows/macOS/Linux system that can be controlled through the terminal. Once you have done that you are golden. Just switch out ["nordvpn", "d"] and ["nordvpn", "c", "canada"] for the correct commands that you would execute in your terminal to disconnect and connect to your specific VPN. I use NordVPN hence the "nordvpn" command. – Streamy

Answer 3

Google may be blocking your IP, use a VPN and it should work.

Coastward

Answer 4

There could be 2 reasons for this:
1. IP address is temporarily blocked.
2. You have reached the character limit.

I faced the same issue and ended up using another package called translate and it works flawlessly. The syntax is pretty similar too. You can find it here or do pip install translate

Woe

Thanks, it worked for me to translate from Russian to English but I think its not good enough. – Teryl

I tried this module, it's easier to use but the limit is so small – Athenian

Answer 5

In my case, it's caused by emoji in strings. I removed them and everything works well.

Mikol

Answer 6

In my case, the error was caused by too many requests in a short time period and my IP address was temporarily blocked. I tried it the next day again and everything worked well.

Sough

Answer 7

I will give a modified answer of Austin Marino, here a solution that just worked for me in a 2000 word list (would work in bigger list too).

first you need to install NordVPN and add it to the system path check this link :

https://support.nordvpn.com/Connectivity/Windows/1350897482/Connect-to-NordVPN-app-on-Windows-using-the-Command-Prompt.htm

The goal is so you can connect/disconnect and chose servers with CMD (you can do the same thing in linux) so you can cantrole theses NordVPN CMD commands through Python code.

Here is the function (please import the libraries) :

   import random

listofservers = ["South Africa", "Egypt" , "Australia", "New Zealand",  "South Korea", "Singapore", "Taiwan", "Vietnam", "Hong Kong", "Indonesia", "Thailand", "Japan", "Malaysia", "United Kingdom", "Netherlands", "Germany", "France", "Belgium", "Switzerland", "Sweden","Spain","Denmark", "Italy", "Norway", "Austria", "Romania", "Czech Republic", "Luxembourg", "Poland", "Finland", "Hungary", "Latvia", "Russia", "Iceland", "Bulgaria", "Croatia", "Moldova", "Portugal", "Albania", "Ireland", "Slovakia","Ukraine", "Cyprus", "Estonia", "Georgia", "Greece", "Serbia", "Slovenia", "Azerbaijan", "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Macedonia","India", 'Turkey', 'Israel', 'United Arab Emirates', 'United States', 'Canada','Mexico'
,"Brazil", "Costa Rica", "Argentina", "Chile"]

def SelectServer(l):
    return random.choice(l)

def translate_text(text, dest_language="en"):  
    # Used to translate using the googletrans library
    translator = googletrans.Translator()
    try:

        translation = translator.translate(text=text, dest=dest_language)

    except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
        # api call restriction

        print("exception !! déconection du VPN ")
        process = subprocess.Popen(["nordvpn", "-d"], shell = True ,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        process.wait()

        time.sleep(5)

        srv = SelectServer(listofservers)

        print("sélection du serveur  : "+ srv + " et connexion")

        process = subprocess.Popen(["nordvpn", "-c", "-g", srv ], shell = True ,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        process.wait()
        time.sleep(60)

        return translate_text(text=text, dest_language=dest_language)

    return translation.text


    #translate to EN and remove EN stopwords 
    ListCapTranslated = []
    for row  in ListCaptionsCleanFiltred:
        # REINITIALIZE THE API
        newrow = translate_text(row, dest_language="en")
        ListCapTranslated.append(newrow)

ListCapTranslated

Before running the code, please add NordVPN to System path and test connecting/disconnecting on servers through CMD so you make sure everything works.

Cheers.

Neiman

Answer 8

I have also faced this problem. In my case, it was due to translating text (in english) to english.

As a workaround I have used another package langdetect to route the non-english text to be translated using google translate.

some snippet from the code:

from langdetect import detect
lang = detect(title)
if lang == 'en':
    temp_dict['title'] = title
else:
    temp_dict['title'] = translator.translate(title, dest='en').text

Nolin

Answer 9

This happens due to the translation limit. You can either use VPNs or Tor to bypass the limitation. However, you can circumvent this by using the translingual python package. Also, the language codes can be accessed here, language codes.

from translingual import translate
# example
trans = translate.translate(data=['hello world', 'the world is yours', 'whatever you do, whatever I do', '2b or not 2b'],tolang='es',fromlang='en',thread=3)
print(trans.translate())

Kerrykersey

Answer 10

It's due to API Limit. The translation limit for each Initialization. So Reinitialize the Translator after the limit by breaking down the code.

from googletrans import Translator

translator = Translator()

Scrotum

Answer 11

The problem lies with the requests that one device can make with the same IP. Changing the VPN resolves the problem. A free and simple alternative to the NordVPN is the TunnelBear. You can download it from here.

For me, the maximum requests to the googletranslate API are 200. So, every 200 requests I change manually the VPN and then, I continue with the next requests.

Unfortunately, there is some manual work here, since you need every time to change the VPN connection. However, it is helpful in case you want to have fast results and avoid programming the VPN change in Python.

Thereof