.json

Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science ...

— Merlin, The Coder

Yeet

What is JSON?

JSON, also known as JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-based, human-readable data interchange format. The filetype used is .json and is based off of a subset of the JavaScript lnaguage. The .json format is completely text-based, and was created back in 2001 by Douglas Crockford. It was later standardized in 2006 through the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) under | RFC 4627

Why use JSON?

Because the file format is text only, JSON data can be easily sent between computers and implemented in various ways.

JSON Syntax

Below is a sample of JSON syntax:

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "isAlive": true,
  "age": 27,
  "address": {
    "streetAddress": "21 2nd Street",
    "city": "New York",
    "state": "NY",
    "postalCode": "10021-3100"
  },
  "phoneNumbers": [
    {
      "type": "home",
      "number": "212 555-1234"
    },
    {
      "type": "office",
      "number": "646 555-4567"
    }
  ],
  "children": [],
  "spouse": null
}

JSON is formatted similar to a dictionary, with key and value pairs.

There are a few key tricks to learning how to read and write in .json files:

• Curly braces {...} contain objects
• Square brackets [...] contain arrays
• Data is stored in name-value pairs separated by a colon, :
• Every data pair and item in an array are separated by a comma ,
• JSON property names must be within quotations "..."

References

• [What is JSON] (W3 Schools)
• [JSON Introduction] (W3 Schools)
• [Introducing JSON] (JSON)
• [What is JSON?] (Oracle)
• [JSON Tutorial] (RESTful API)
• [What is JSON?] (Codecademy)
• [JSON (Javascript Object Notation)] (TheServerSide)
• [What is JSON?] (Node.js)