Fixing "Content-Type incorrect" Errors with Python Requests

When using the Python Requests library to make HTTP requests, you may occasionally see an error like:

requests.exceptions.InvalidHeader: Value for header Content-Type is invalid

This happens when Requests is unable to determine the correct Content-Type header to send with the request body.

Why Content-Type Matters

The Content-Type header tells the server what format the data is being sent in - like JSON, form data, etc. This allows the server to correctly parse and process the request body. Without the proper Content-Type, the server may reject the request or parse the data incorrectly.

Common Causes

There are a few common reasons you may see invalid Content-Type errors:

Sending JSON without setting Content-Type: By default, Requests won't set a Content-Type when sending JSON. So you need to manually set it to application/json.

Incorrect format for form-encoded data: Form data needs to be a dictionary that Requests can encode. An invalid format can cause incorrect Content-Type headers.

Forgetting to encode file objects: When sending files, you need to wrap them with open(file, 'rb') so Requests can properly handle encoding.

Solutions

Here are some tips to avoid invalid Content-Type errors:

Explicitly set Content-Type for JSON: headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}

Use correct format for form-encoded data: The data parameter should be a dictionary.

Encode file objects correctly: files = {'file': open('report.xls', 'rb')}

Taking a bit of extra care to ensure the request body and headers match the expected Content-Type can save you some frustrating errors! The Requests documentation contains more great examples too.

Fixing "Content-Type incorrect" Errors with Python Requests

Why Content-Type Matters

Common Causes

Solutions

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Fixing "Content-Type incorrect" Errors with Python Requests

Why Content-Type Matters

Common Causes

Solutions

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