JSON : Tutorial and Usage

Json Introduction

What is JSON?

• JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation
• JSON is lightweight text-data interchange format
• JSON is language independent *
• JSON is "self-describing" and easy to understand

JSON uses JavaScript syntax for describing data objects, but JSON is still language and platform independent. JSON parsers and JSON libraries exists for many different programming languages.

Json Format Example :

{

    "employees": [

        {

            "firstName": "John",

            "lastName": "Doe"

        },

        {

            "firstName": "Anna",

            "lastName": "Smith"

        }

    ]

}

Why JSON?

For AJAX applications, JSON is faster and easier than XML:

Using XML

• Fetch an XML document
• Use the XML DOM to loop through the document
• Extract values and store in variables

Using JSON

• Fetch a JSON string
• eval() the JSON string

JSON Values

JSON values can be:

• A number (integer or floating point)
• A string (in double quotes)
• A Boolean (true or false)
• An array (in square brackets)
• An object (in curly brackets)
• null

More JSON Introduction 

Json Validator

http://jsonlint.com/

JSON Lint is a web based validator and reformatter for JSON, a lightweight data-interchange format.

Json Usage 

PHP

json_encode	Returns the JSON representation of a value
json_decode	Decodes a JSON string

Example

$json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}';

var_dump(json_decode($json, true));

Output: array(5) {

    ["a"] => int(1)

    ["b"] => int(2)

    ["c"] => int(3)

    ["d"] => int(4)

    ["e"] => int(5)

}

PERL

Library Require : $tar xvfz JSON-2.53.tar.gz

 

encode_json()	converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
decode_json()	used for decoding JSON in Per

Example

#!/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);

Output

$VAR1 = {

          'e' => 5,

          'c' => 3,

          'a' => 1,

          'b' => 2,

          'd' => 4

        };

JAVA

Library Required : JSON.simple 

Encoding in JAVA

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));

      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"} 

Decoding Json in JAVA 

import org.json.simple.JSONObject;

import org.json.simple.JSONArray;

import org.json.simple.parser.ParseException;

import org.json.simple.parser.JSONParser;

class JsonDecodeDemo

{

   public static void main(String[] args)

   {

      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]

JAVASCRIPT

No library required  

Example

var jsonObj = JSON.parse(json_string);

var name =  jsonObj.name;

var country = jsonObj.country;

You can also check our Microservices post

Introduction to Microservices