Introduction to JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is:

• lightweight data-interchange format
• open standard file format
• easy for humans to read and write
• easy for machines to parse and generate
• uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects

JSON - Wikipedia

JSON

Arrays

Valid JSON: array of objects:

[
   {
"a": 1
   }, 
   {
"b": 2
   }
]

Valid JSON: array of arrays where each array has a single element:

[
[
  {
"a": {}
}
 ],
[
  {
"b": {}
}
 ]
]

How to represent an array of integers?

JSON for List of int

{
    "Id": "610",
    "Name": "15",
    "Description": "1.99",
    "ItemModList": [
                       0,
                       375,
                       668,
                       5,
                       6
                   ]
}

JSON (object) vs JSON string

JSON object is an instance of the data type (e.g. Object in JavaScript) which represents a JSON (structure) and which can be initialised with a JSON literal:

var jsonObject = { "prop": "val" };

JSON string is a string:

var jsonString = '{ "prop": "val" }';

JavaScript provides methods for converting JSON Object to string:

JSON.stringify to convert objects into JSON string.

JSON.parse to convert JSON string back into an object.

JSON methods, toJSON

Ben Alman » There's no such thing as a "JSON Object"