Json Tutorial
Json Tutorial
JSON TUTORIAL
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JSON Tutorial
JSON or JavaScript Object Notation is a lightweight is a text-based open standard designed for humanreadable data interchange. The JSON format was originally specified by Douglas Crockford, and is described in RFC 4627. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. The JSON filename extension is .json. This tutorial will help you in understanding JSON and how to use it within various programming languages like PHP, PERL, Python, Ruby, Java etc.
Audience
This tutorial has been designed to help beginners understand basic functionality of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to develop data interchange format. After completing this tutorial you will find yourself at a moderate level of expertise in using JSON with Javscript, Ajax, Perl etc from where you can take yourself to next levels.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial you should have a basic understanding of how web application work over HTTP and we assume that you have basic knowledge of JavaScript.
Table of Content
JSON Tutorial .......................................................................... 2 Audience .................................................................................. 2 Prerequisites ............................................................................ 2 Copyright & Disclaimer Notice.................................................. 2 JSON - Overview ..................................................................... 6
Uses of JSON ............................................................................................ 6 Characteristics of JSON ............................................................................. 6 Simple Example in JSON ........................................................................... 7
CHAPTER
JSON - Overview
SON or JavaScript Object Notation is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable
data interchange. Conventions used by JSON are known to programmers which include C, C++, Java, Python, Perl etc. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. This format was specified by Douglas Crockford. This was designed for human-readable data interchange It has been extended from the JavaScript scripting language. The filename extension is .json JSON Internet Media type is application/json The Uniform Type Identifier is public.json
Uses of JSON
It is used when writing JavaScript based application which includes browser extension and websites. JSON format is used for serializing & transmitting structured data over network connection. This is primarily used to transmit data between server and web application. Web Services and API.s use JSON format to provide public data. It can be used with modern programming languages.
Characteristics of JSON
You can refer to JSON Objects chapter about more information on JSON objects.
CHAPTER
JSON - Syntax
L
{
ets have a quick look on JSON basic syntax. JSON syntax is basically considered as subset of
JavaScript syntax, it includes the following: Data is represented in name/value pairs Curly braces hold objects and each name is followed by ':'(colon), the name/value pairs are separated by , (comma). Square brackets hold arrays and values are separated by ,(comma).
Below is a simple example: "book": [ { "id":"01", "language": "Java", "edition": "third", "author": "Herbert Schildt" }, { "id":"07", "language": "C++", "edition": "second" "author": "E.Balagurusamy" }] } JSON supports following two data structures:
Collection of name/value pairs: This Data Structure is supported by different programming language. Ordered list of values: It includes array, list, vector or sequence etc.
CHAPTER
JSON - DataTypes
T
Type Number String Boolean Array Value Object
Description double- precision floating-point format in JavaScript double-quoted Unicode with backslash escaping true or false an ordered sequence of values it can be a string, a number, true or false, null etc an unordered collection of key:value pairs can be used between any pair of tokens Empty
Whitespace Null
Number
It is a double precision floating-point format in JavaScript and it depends on implementation. Octal and hexadecimal formats are not used. No NaN or Infinity is used in Number.
The following table shows number types: Type Integer Fraction Exponent Description Digits 1-9, 0 and positive or negative Fractions like .3, .9 Exponent like e, e+, e-,E, E+, E-
SYNTAX:
var json-object-name = { string : number_value, .......}
EXAMPLE:
Example showing Number Datatype, value should not be quoted: var obj = {marks: 97}
String
It is a sequence of zero or more double quoted Unicode characters with backslash escaping. Character is a single character string i.e. a string with length 1.
The table shows string types: Type " \ / B F N R T U Description double quotation reverse solidus Solidus Backspace form feed new line carriage return horizontal tab four hexadecimal digits
SYNTAX:
var json-object-name = { string : "string value", .......}
EXAMPLE:
Example showing String Datatype: var obj = {name: 'Amit'}
Boolean
It includes true or false values.
SYNTAX:
var json-object-name = { string : true/false, .......}
EXAMPLE:
var obj = {name: 'Amit', marks: 97, distinction: true}
Array
It is an ordered collection of values. These are enclosed square brackets which means that array begins with .[. and ends with .].. The values are separated by ,(comma). Array indexing can be started at 0 or 1. Arrays should be used when the key names are sequential integers.
SYNTAX:
[ value, .......]
EXAMPLE:
Example showing array containing multiple objects: { "books": [ { "language":"Java" , "edition":"second" }, { "language":"C++" , "lastName":"fifth" }, { "language":"C" , "lastName":"third" } ] }
Object
It is an unordered set of name/value pairs. Object are enclosed in curly braces that is it starts with '{' and ends with '}'. Each name is followed by ':'(colon) and the name/value pairs are separated by , (comma). The keys must be strings and should be different from each other. Objects should be used when the key names are arbitrary strings
SYNTAX:
{ string : value, .......}
EXAMPLE:
Example showing Object:
Whitespace
It can be inserted between any pair of tokens. It can be added to make code more readable. Example shows declaration with and without whitespace:
SYNTAX:
{string:" ",....}
EXAMPLE:
var i= " var j = " sachin"; saurav"
null
It means empty type.
SYNTAX:
null
EXAMPLE:
var i = null; if(i==1) { document.write("<h1>value is 1</h1>"); } else { document.write("<h1>value is null</h1>"); }
JSON Value
It includes:
object null
SYNTAX:
String | Number | Object | Array | TRUE | FALSE | NULL
EXAMPLE:
var i =1; var j = "sachin"; var k = null;
CHAPTER
JSON Objects
Creating Simple Objects
SON objects can be created with Javascript. Let us see various ways of creating JSON objects using
var JSONObj = new Object(); Creation of an object with attribute bookname with value in string, attribute price with numeric value. Attributes is accessed by using '.' Operator:
var JSONObj = { "bookname ":"VB BLACK BOOK", "price":500 }; This is an example which shows creation of an object in javascript using JSON, save the below code as json_object.htm: <html> <head> <title>Creating Object JSON with JavaScript</title> <script language="javascript" > var JSONObj = { "name" : "tutorialspoint.com", "year" : 2005 }; document.write("<h1>JSON with JavaScript example</h1>"); document.write("<br>"); document.write("<h3>Website Name="+JSONObj.name+"</h3>"); document.write("<h3>Year="+JSONObj.year+"</h3>"); </script> </head> <body> </body> </html>
Now let's try to open json_object.htm using IE or any other javascript enabled browser, this produces the following result:
+ books.Scala[i].price+"</td></tr>"); document.writeln("</table>"); document.writeln("</td>"); } document.writeln("</tr></table>"); </script> </head> <body> </body> </html> Now let's try to open json_array_object.htm using IE or any other javascript enabled browser, this produces the following result:
CHAPTER
JSON - Schema
SON Schema is a specification for JSON based format for defining structure of JSON data. It was written
under IETF draft which expired in 2011. JSON Schema: Describes your existing data format. Clear, human- and machine-readable documentation. Complete structural validation, useful for automated testing. Complete structural validation, validating client-submitted data.
minLength Pattern
The length of a string instance is defined as the minimum number of its characters. A string instance is considered valid if the regular expression matches the instance successfully.
You can check a http://json-schema.org for complete list of keywords which can be used in defining JSON schema. Above schema can be used to test the validity of the below given JSON code: [ { "id": 2, "name": "An ice sculpture", "price": 12.50, }, { "id": 3, "name": "A blue mouse", "price": 25.50, } ]
CHAPTER
JSON - Comparison
SON and XML are human readable formats and are language independent. They both have support for
creation, reading and decoding in real world situations. We can compare JSON with XML based on the following factors:
Verbose
XML is more verbose than JSON, so it's faster to write JSON for humans.
Arrays Usage
XML is used to describe structured data which doesn't include arrays whereas JSON include arrays.
Parsing
JavaScript's eval method parses JSON. When applied to JSON, eval returns the described object.
Example
This shows individual examples of XML and JSON:
JSON
{ "company": Volkswagen, "name": "Vento", "price": 800000 }
XML
<car> <company>Volkswagen</company> <name>Vento</name> <price>800000</price> </car>
CHAPTER
his tutorial will teach you how to encode and decode JSON objects using PHP programming language.
Let's start with preparing environment to start our programming with PHP for JSON.
Environment
As of PHP 5.2.0, the JSON extension is bundled and compiled into PHP by default.
JSON Functions
Function json_encode json_decode json_last_error Libraries Returns the JSON representation of a value Decodes a JSON string Returns the last error occurred
SYNTAX:
string json_encode ( $value [, $options = 0 ] )
PARAMETERS:
value: The value being encoded. This function only works with UTF-8 encoded data. options: This optional value is a bitmask consisting of JSON_HEX_QUOT, JSON_HEX_TAG, JSON_HEX_AMP, JSON_HEX_APOS, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK,JSON_PRETTY_PRINT, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT
EXAMPLE
The following example shows how to convert an array into JSON with PHP:
<?php $arr = array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4, 'e' => 5); echo json_encode($arr); ?> While executing, this will produce following result: {"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5} The following example shows how PHP objects can be converted into JSON: <?php class Emp { public $name = ""; public $hobbies = ""; public $birthdate = ""; } $e = new Emp(); $e->name = "sachin"; $e->hobbies = "sports"; $e->birthdate = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', "8/5/1974 12:20:03 p"); $e->birthdate = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', strtotime("8/5/1974 12:20:03")); echo json_encode($e); ?> While executing, this will produce following result: {"name":"sachin","hobbies":"sports","birthdate":"08\/05\/1974 12:20:03 pm"}
SYNTAX:
mixed json_decode ($json [,$assoc = false [, $depth = 512 [, $options = 0 ]]])
PARAMATERS:
json_string: It is encoded string which must be UTF-8 encoded data assoc: It is a boolean type parameter, when set to TRUE, returned objects will be converted into associative arrays. depth: It is an integer type parameter which specifies recursion depth options: It is an integer type bitmask of JSON decode, JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRING is supported.
EXAMPLE
The following example shows how PHP can be used to decode JSON objects: <?php $json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}'; var_dump(json_decode($json)); var_dump(json_decode($json, true)); ?>
While executing, this will produce following result: object(stdClass)#1 (5) { ["a"] => int(1) ["b"] => int(2) ["c"] => int(3) ["d"] => int(4) ["e"] => int(5) } array(5) { ["a"] => ["b"] => ["c"] => ["d"] => ["e"] => } int(1) int(2) int(3) int(4) int(5)
CHAPTER
his tutorial will teach you how to encode and decode JSON objects using Perl programming language.
Let's start with preparing environment to start our programming with Perl for JSON.
Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Perl, you will need to install JSON module which can be obtained from CPAN. Once you downloaded JSON-2.53.tar.gz or any other latest version, follow the following steps: $tar xvfz JSON-2.53.tar.gz $cd JSON-2.53 $perl Makefile.PL $make $make install
JSON Functions
Function encode_json decode_json to_json from_json convert_blessed Libraries Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string. Decodes a JSON string. Converts the given Perl data structure to a json string. Expects a json string and tries to parse it, returning the resulting reference. Use this function with true value so that Perl can use TO_JSON method on the object's class to convert an object into JSON.
SYNTAX:
$json_text = encode_json ($perl_scalar );
or $json_text = JSON->new->utf8->encode($perl_scalar);
EXAMPLE
The following example shows arrays under JSON with Perl: #!/usr/bin/perl use JSON; my %rec_hash = ('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4, 'e' => 5); my $json = encode_json \%rec_hash; print "$json\n"; While executing, this will produce following result: {"e":5,"c":3,"a":1,"b":2,"d":4} The following example shows how Perl objects can be converted into JSON: #!/usr/bin/perl package Emp; sub new { my $class = shift; my $self = { name => shift, hobbies => shift, birthdate => shift, }; bless $self, $class; return $self; } sub TO_JSON { return { %{ shift() } }; } package main; use JSON; my $JSON = JSON->new->utf8; $JSON->convert_blessed(1); $e = new Emp( "sachin", "sports", "8/5/1974 12:20:03 pm"); $json = $JSON->encode($e); print "$json\n"; While executing, this will produce following result: {"birthdate":"8/5/1974 12:20:03 pm","name":"sachin","hobbies":"sports"}
SYNTAX:
$perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text or $perl_scalar = JSON->new->utf8->decode($json_text)
EXAMPLE
The following example shows how Perl can be used to decode JSON objects. Here you will need to install Data::Dumper module if you already do not have it on your machine. #!/usr/bin/perl use JSON; use Data::Dumper; $json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}'; $text = decode_json($json); print Dumper($text); While executing, this will produce following result: $VAR1 = { 'e' 'c' 'a' 'b' 'd' }; => => => => => 5, 3, 1, 2, 4
CHAPTER
his tutorial will teach you how to encode and decode JSON objects using Python programming language.
Let's start with preparing environment to start our programming with Python for JSON.
Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Python, you will need to install any of the JSON modules available. For this tutorial I downloaded and installed Demjson as follows: $tar xvfz demjson-1.6.tar.gz $cd demjson-1.6 $python setup.py install
JSON Functions
Function Encode Decode Libraries Encodes the Python object into a JSON string representation. Decodes a JSON-endoded string into a Python object
SYNTAX:
demjson.encode(self, obj, nest_level=0)
EXAMPLE
The following example shows arrays under JSON with Python #!/usr/bin/python import demjson data = [ { 'a' : 1, 'b' : 2, 'c' : 3, 'd' : 4, 'e' : 5 } ]
json = demjson.encode(data) print json While executing, this will produce following result: [{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}]
SYNTAX:
demjson.decode(self, txt)
EXAMPLE
The following example shows how Python can be used to decode JSON objects. #!/usr/bin/python import demjson json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}'; text = demjson.decode(json) print text While executing, this will produce following result: {u'a': 1, u'c': 3, u'b': 2, u'e': 5, u'd': 4}
10
JSON with Ruby
CHAPTER
his tutorial will teach you how to encode and decode JSON objects using Ruby programming language.
Let's start with preparing environment to start our programming with Ruby for JSON.
Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Ruby, you will need to install any of the JSON modules available for Ruby. You may need to install Ruby gem, but if you are running latest version of Ruby then you must have gem already installed on your machine, otherwise let's follow the following single step assuming you already have gem installed: $gem install json
The following is ruby program which will be used to parse above mentioned JSON document: #!/usr/bin/ruby require 'rubygems' require 'json' require 'pp' json = File.read('input.json') obj = JSON.parse(json) pp obj While executing, this will produce following result: {"President"=>"Alan Isaac", "CEO"=>"David Richardson", "India"=> ["Sachin Tendulkar", "Virender Sehwag", "Gautam Gambhir"], "Srilanka"=> ["Lasith Malinga ", "Angelo Mathews", "Kumar Sangakkara"], "England"=> ["Alastair Cook", "Jonathan Trott", "Kevin Pietersen"] }
11
JSON with Java
CHAPTER
his tutorial will teach you how to encode and decode JSON objects using Java programming language.
Let's start with preparing environment to start our programming with Java for JSON.
Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Java, you will need to install any of the JSON modules available. For this tutorial I downloaded and installed JSON.simple and add the location ofjson-simple1.1.1.jar file to environment variable CLASSPATH:
While decoding, default concrete class of java.util.List is org.json.simple.JSONArray and default concrete class of java.util.Map is org.json.simple.JSONObject.
class JsonEncodeDemo { public static void main(String[] args) { JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(); obj.put("name", "foo"); obj.put("num", new Integer(100)); obj.put("balance", new Double(1000.21)); obj.put("is_vip", new Boolean(true)); System.out.print(obj); } } While compile and executing above program, this will produce following result: {"balance": 1000.21, "num":100, "is_vip":true, "name":"foo"} Following is another example which shows JSON object streaming using Java JSONObject: import org.json.simple.JSONObject; class JsonEncodeDemo { public static void main(String[] args) { JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(); obj.put("name","foo"); obj.put("num",new Integer(100)); obj.put("balance",new Double(1000.21)); obj.put("is_vip",new Boolean(true)); StringWriter out = new StringWriter(); obj.writeJSONString(out); String jsonText = out.toString(); System.out.print(jsonText); } } While compile and executing above program, this will produce following result: {"balance": 1000.21, "num":100, "is_vip":true, "name":"foo"}
JSONParser parser=new JSONParser(); String s = "[0,{\"1\":{\"2\":{\"3\":{\"4\":[5,{\"6\":7}]}}}}]"; try{ Object obj = parser.parse(s); JSONArray array = (JSONArray)obj; System.out.println("The 2nd element of array"); System.out.println(array.get(1)); System.out.println(); JSONObject obj2 = (JSONObject)array.get(1); System.out.println("Field \"1\""); System.out.println(obj2.get("1")); s = "{}"; obj = parser.parse(s); System.out.println(obj); s= "[5,]"; obj = parser.parse(s); System.out.println(obj); s= "[5,,2]"; obj = parser.parse(s); System.out.println(obj); }catch(ParseException pe){ System.out.println("position: " + pe.getPosition()); System.out.println(pe); } } } While compile and executing above program, this will produce following result: The 2nd element of array {"1":{"2":{"3":{"4":[5,{"6":7}]}}}} Field "1" {"2":{"3":{"4":[5,{"6":7}]}}} {} [5] [5,2]
12
JSON with Ajax
CHAPTER
jax is Asynchronous JavaScript and XML which is used on client side as group of interrelated web
development techniques in order to create asynchronous web applications. According to Ajax model, web applications can send data and retrieve data from a server asynchronously without interfering with the display, behavior of existing page. Many developers use JSON to pass AJAX updates between client and server. Websites updating live sports scores can be considered as an example of AJAX. If these scores have to be updated on the website, then they must be stored on the server so that the webpage can retrieve the score when it is required. This is where we can make use of JSON formatted data. Any data that is updated using AJAX can be stored using the JSON format on web server. Ajax is used so that javascript can retrieve these JSON files when necessary, they parse them and then does of the two: Store the parsed values in variables for further processing before displaying them on the webpage It directly assigns the data to the DOM elements in the webpage, so that it gets displayed on the website.
Example
The below code shows JSON with Ajax, save it in ajax.htm file. Here loading function loadJSON() will be used asynchronously to upload JSON data. <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"> <script type="application/javascript"> function loadJSON() { var data_file = "http://www.tutorialspoint.com/json/data.json"; var http_request = new XMLHttpRequest(); try{ // Opera 8.0+, Firefox, Chrome, Safari http_request = new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e){ // Internet Explorer Browsers try{ http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); }catch (e) { try{
http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); }catch (e){ // Something went wrong alert("Your browser broke!"); return false; } } } http_request.onreadystatechange = function(){ if (http_request.readyState == 4 ) { // Javascript function JSON.parse to parse JSON data var jsonObj = JSON.parse(http_request.responseText); // jsonObj variable now contains the data structure and can // be accessed as jsonObj.name and jsonObj.country. document.getElementById("Name").innerHTML = jsonObj.name; document.getElementById("Country").innerHTML = jsonObj.country; } } http_request.open("GET", data_file, true); http_request.send(); } </script> <title>tutorialspoint.com JSON</title> </head> <body> <h1>Cricketer Details</h1> <table class="src"> <tr><th>Name</th><th>Country</th></tr> <tr><td><div id="Name">Sachin</div></td> <td><div id="Country">India</div></td></tr> </table> <div class="central"> <button type="button" onclick="loadJSON()">Update Details </button> </body> </html> Following is the input file data.json having data in JSON format which will be uploaded asynchronously when we click Update Detail button. This file is being kept in http://www.tutorialspoint.com/json/ {"name": "brett", "country": "Australia"} Above HTML code will generate following screen, where you can check AJAX in action:
Cricketer Details
Name Sachin Country India
When you click on Update Detail button, you should get a result something as follows, you can try it yourself JSON with AJAX provided your browser supports Javascript.
Cricketer Details
Name Brett Country Australia