About the Tutorial

JSON or JavaScript Object Notation is a lightweight text-based open standard designed

for human-readable 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 understand JSON and its use within various programming
languages such as PHP, PERL, Python, Ruby, Java, etc.

Audience
This tutorial has been designed to help beginners understand the basic functionality of
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to develop the data interchange format. After
completing this tutorial, you will have a good understanding of JSON and how to use it
with JavaScript, Ajax, Perl, etc.

Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of the web
applications work over HTTP and we assume that you have a basic knowledge of
JavaScript.

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We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely
as possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors. Tutorials Point (I)
Pvt. Ltd. provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of
our website or its contents including this tutorial. If you discover any errors on our
website or in this tutorial, please notify us at [email protected]

i
Table of Contents
About the Tutorial .................................................................................................................................... i

Audience .................................................................................................................................................. i

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................ i

Copyright & Disclaimer............................................................................................................................. i

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... ii

1. JSON OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................... 1

Uses of JSON ........................................................................................................................................... 1

Characteristics of JSON ............................................................................................................................ 1

Simple Example in JSON .......................................................................................................................... 1

2. JSON SYNTAX .................................................................................................................... 4

3. JSON DATATYPES .............................................................................................................. 5

Number ................................................................................................................................................... 5

String ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

Boolean ................................................................................................................................................... 7

Array ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Object ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

Whitespace ............................................................................................................................................. 8

null .......................................................................................................................................................... 9

JSON Value .............................................................................................................................................. 9

4. JSON OBJECTS................................................................................................................. 10

Creating Simple Objects ........................................................................................................................ 10

Creating Array Objects .......................................................................................................................... 11

ii
5. JSON SCHEMA ................................................................................................................ 13

JSON Schema Validation Libraries ......................................................................................................... 13

JSON Schema Example .......................................................................................................................... 14

6. JSON COMPARISON WITH XML....................................................................................... 17

7. JSON JSON WITH PHP ..................................................................................................... 18

Environment ......................................................................................................................................... 18

JSON Functions...................................................................................................................................... 18

Encoding JSON in PHP (json_encode) .................................................................................................... 18

Decoding JSON in PHP (json_decode) .................................................................................................... 19

8. JSON JSON WITH PERL .................................................................................................... 21

Environment ......................................................................................................................................... 21

JSON Functions...................................................................................................................................... 21

Encoding JSON in Perl (encode_json) .................................................................................................... 22

Decoding JSON in Perl (decode_json) .................................................................................................... 23

9. JSON JSON WITH PYTHON .............................................................................................. 25

Environment ......................................................................................................................................... 25

JSON Functions...................................................................................................................................... 25

Encoding JSON in Python (encode) ........................................................................................................ 25

Decoding JSON in Python (decode) ....................................................................................................... 26

10. JSON JSON WITH RUBY ................................................................................................... 27

Environment ......................................................................................................................................... 27

Parsing JSON using Ruby ....................................................................................................................... 27

iii
11. JSON JSON WITH JAVA .................................................................................................... 29

Environment ......................................................................................................................................... 29

Mapping between JSON and Java entities ............................................................................................. 29

Encoding JSON in Java ........................................................................................................................... 30

Decoding JSON in Java ........................................................................................................................... 31

12. JSON JSON WITH AJAX .................................................................................................... 33

iv
 JSON
1. JSON Overview

JSON 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.

The format was specified by Douglas Crockford.

It 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 while writing JavaScript based applications that includes browser
extensions and websites.

JSON format is used for serializing and transmitting structured data over network
connection.

It is primarily used to transmit data between a server and web applications.

Web services and APIs use JSON format to provide public data.

It can be used with modern programming languages.

Characteristics of JSON
JSON is easy to read and write.

It is a lightweight text-based interchange format.

JSON is language independent.

Simple Example in JSON

The following example shows how to use JSON to store information related to books
based on their topic and edition.

{
"book": [
{

1
 JSON

"id":"01",
"language": "Java",
"edition": "third",
"author": "Herbert Schildt"
},
{
"id":"07",
"language": "C++",
"edition": "second"
"author": "E.Balagurusamy"
}]
}

After understanding the above program, we will try another example. Let's save the
below code as json.htm:

<html>
<head>
<title>JSON example</title>
<script language="javascript" >

var object1 = { "language" : "Java", "author" : "herbert schildt" };

document.write("<h1>JSON with JavaScript example</h1>");
document.write("<br>");
document.write("<h3>Language = " + object1.language+"</h3>");
document.write("<h3>Author = " + object1.author+"</h3>");

var object2 = { "language" : "C++", "author" : "E-Balagurusamy" };

document.write("<br>");
document.write("<h3>Language = " + object2.language+"</h3>");
document.write("<h3>Author = " + object2.author+"</h3>");

document.write("<hr />");
document.write(object2.language + " programming language can be studied " +
"from book written by " + object2.author);
document.write("<hr />");

2
 JSON

</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Now let's try to open json.htm using IE or any other javascript enabled browser that
produces the following result:

You can refer to JSON Objects chapter for more information on JSON objects.

3
 JSON
2. JSON Syntax

Let's have a quick look at the basic syntax of JSON. JSON syntax is basically considered
as a 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 the following two data structures:

Collection of name/value pairs: This Data Structure is supported by different

programming languages.

Ordered list of values: It includes array, list, vector or sequence etc.

4
 JSON
3. JSON DataTypes

JSON format supports the following data types:

Type Description

Number double- precision floating-point format in JavaScript

String double-quoted Unicode with backslash escaping

Boolean true or false

Array an ordered sequence of values

Value it can be a string, a number, true or false, null etc

Object an unordered collection of key:value pairs

Whitespace can be used between any pair of tokens

null empty

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 the number types:

Type Description

Integer Digits 1-9, 0 and positive or negative

Fraction Fractions like .3, .9

Exponent Exponent like e, e+, e-,E, E+, E-

5
 JSON

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 various special characters that you can use in strings of a JSON
document:

Type Description

" double quotation

\ backslash

/ forward slash

b backspace

f form feed

n new line

r carriage return

t horizontal tab

u four hexadecimal digits

Syntax

var json-object-name = { string : "string value", .......}

6
 JSON

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 in 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" }
]
}

7
 JSON

Object
It is an unordered set of name/value pairs.

Objects are enclosed in curly braces that is, it starts with '{' and ends with '}'.

Each name is followed by ':'(colon) and the key/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:

{
"id": "011A",
"language": "JAVA",
"price": 500,
}

Whitespace
It can be inserted between any pair of tokens. It can be added to make a code more
readable. Example shows declaration with and without whitespace:

Syntax

{string: " ",....}

Example

var obj1 = {"name": "Sachin Tendulkar"}

var obj2 = {"name": "SauravGanguly"}

8
 JSON

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:

number (integer or floating point)

string

boolean

array

object

null

Syntax

String | Number | Object | Array | TRUE | FALSE | NULL

Example

var i = 1;
var j = "sachin";
var k = null;

9
 JSON
4. JSON Objects

Creating Simple Objects

JSON objects can be created with JavaScript. Let us see the various ways of creating
JSON objects using JavaScript:

Creation of an empty Object:

var JSONObj = {};

Creation of a new Object:

var JSONObj = new Object();

Creation of an object with attribute bookname with value in string,

attribute price with numeric value. Attribute is accessed by using '.' Operator:

var JSONObj = { "bookname ":"VB BLACK BOOK", "price":500 };

This is an example that 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>

10
 JSON

Now let's try to open json_object.htm using IE or any other javascript enabled browser.
It produces the following result:

Creating Array Objects

The following example shows creation of an array object in javascript using JSON, save
the below code as json_array_object.htm:

<html>
<head>
<title>Creation of array object in javascript using JSON</title>
<script language="javascript" >

document.writeln("<h2>JSON array object</h2>");

var books = { "Pascal" : [

{ "Name" : "Pascal Made Simple", "price" : 700 },
{ "Name" : "Guide to Pascal", "price" : 400 }
],
"Scala" : [
{ "Name" : "Scala for the Impatient", "price" : 1000 },
{ "Name" : "Scala in Depth", "price" : 1300 }
]
}

var i = 0
document.writeln("<table border='2'><tr>");
for(i=0;i<books.Pascal.length;i++)
{
document.writeln("<td>");

11
 JSON

document.writeln("<table border='1' width=100 >");

document.writeln("<tr><td><b>Name</b></td><td width=50>"
+ books.Pascal[i].Name+"</td></tr>");
document.writeln("<tr><td><b>Price</b></td><td width=50>"
+ books.Pascal[i].price +"</td></tr>");
document.writeln("</table>");
document.writeln("</td>");
}

for(i=0;i<books.Scala.length;i++)
{
document.writeln("<td>");
document.writeln("<table border='1' width=100 >");
document.writeln("<tr><td><b>Name</b></td><td width=50>"
+ books.Scala[i].Name+"</td></tr>");
document.writeln("<tr><td><b>Price</b></td><td width=50>"
+ 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. It produces the following result:

12
 JSON
5. JSON Schema

JSON Schema is a specification for JSON based format for defining the 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.

JSON Schema Validation Libraries

There are several validators currently available for different programming languages.
Currently the most complete and compliant JSON Schema validator available is JSV.

Languages Libraries

C WJElement (LGPLv3)

Java json-schema-validator (LGPLv3)

.NET Json.NET (MIT)

ActionScript 3 Frigga (MIT)

Haskell aeson-schema (MIT)

Python Jsonschema

Ruby autoparse (ASL 2.0); ruby-jsonschema (MIT)

PHP php-json-schema (MIT). json-schema (Berkeley)

JavaScript Orderly (BSD); JSV; json-schema; Matic (MIT); Dojo; Persevere

(modified BSD or AFL 2.0); schema.js.

13
 JSON

JSON Schema Example

Given below is a basic JSON schema, which covers a classical product catalog
description:

{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
"title": "Product",
"description": "A product from Acme's catalog",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"id": {
"description": "The unique identifier for a product",
"type": "integer"
},
"name": {
"description": "Name of the product",
"type": "string"
},
"price": {
"type": "number",
"minimum": 0,
"exclusiveMinimum": true
}
},
"required": ["id", "name", "price"]
}

Let's check the various important keywords that can be used in this schema:

Keywords Description

$schema The $schema keyword states that this schema is written

according to the draft v4 specification.

title You will use this to give a title to your schema.

description A little description of the schema.

14
 JSON

type The type keyword defines the first constraint on our JSON data: it
has to be a JSON Object.

properties Defines various keys and their value types, minimum and
maximum values to be used in JSON file.

required This keeps a list of required properties.

minimum This is the constraint to be put on the value and represents

minimum acceptable value.

exclusiveMinimum If "exclusiveMinimum" is present and has boolean value true, the

instance is valid if it is strictly greater than the value of
"minimum".

maximum This is the constraint to be put on the value and represents

maximum acceptable value.

exclusiveMaximum If "exclusiveMaximum" is present and has boolean value true, the

instance is valid if it is strictly lower than the value of
"maximum".

multipleOf A numeric instance is valid against "multipleOf" if the result of the

division of the instance by this keyword's value is an integer.

maxLength The length of a string instance is defined as the maximum

number of its characters.

minLength The length of a string instance is defined as the minimum number

of its characters.

pattern A string instance is considered valid if the regular expression

matches the instance successfully.

15
 JSON

You can check a http://json-schema.org for the complete list of keywords that can be
used in defining a JSON schema. The above schema can be used to test the validity of
the following JSON code:

[
{
"id": 2,
"name": "An ice sculpture",
"price": 12.50,
},
{
"id": 3,
"name": "A blue mouse",
"price": 25.50,
}
]

16
 JSON
6. JSON Comparison with XML

JSON 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 is faster to write JSON for programmers.

Arrays Usage
XML is used to describe the 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
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>

17
 JSON
7. JSON JSON with PHP

This chapter covers how to encode and decode JSON objects using PHP programming
language. Let's start with preparing the 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 Libraries

json_encode Returns the JSON representation of a value.

json_decode Decodes a JSON string.

json_last_error Returns the last error occurred.

Encoding JSON in PHP (json_encode)

PHP json_encode() function is used for encoding JSON in PHP. This function returns the
JSON representation of a value on success or FALSE on failure.

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.

18
 JSON

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 the following result:

{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}

The following example shows how the 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 the following result:

{"name":"sachin","hobbies":"sports","birthdate":"08\/05\/1974 12:20:03 pm"}

Decoding JSON in PHP (json_decode)

PHP json_decode() function is used for decoding JSON in PHP. This function returns the
value decoded from json to appropriate PHP type.

Syntax

mixed json_decode ($json [,$assoc = false [, $depth = 512 [, $options = 0 ]]])

19
 JSON

Paramaters
json_string: It is an 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, it will produce the following result:

object(stdClass)#1 (5) {
["a"] => int(1)
["b"] => int(2)
["c"] => int(3)
["d"] => int(4)
["e"] => int(5)
}

array(5) {
["a"] => int(1)
["b"] => int(2)
["c"] => int(3)
["d"] => int(4)
["e"] => int(5)
}

20
 JSON
8. JSON JSON with Perl

This chapter covers how to encode and decode JSON objects using Perl programming
language. Let's start with preparing the environment to start our programming with Perl
for JSON.

Environment
Before you start encoding and decoding JSON using Perl, you 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 steps mentioned below:

$tar xvfz JSON-2.53.tar.gz

$cd JSON-2.53
$perl Makefile.PL
$make
$make install

JSON Functions
Function Libraries

encode_json Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary
string.

decode_json Decodes a JSON string.

to_json Converts the given Perl data structure to a json string.

from_json Expects a json string and tries to parse it, returning the resulting
reference.

convert_blessed 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.

21
 JSON

Encoding JSON in Perl (encode_json)

Perl encode_json() function converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded,
binary string.

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 the 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;

22
 JSON

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";

On executing, it will produce the following result:

{"birthdate":"8/5/1974 12:20:03 pm","name":"sachin","hobbies":"sports"}

Decoding JSON in Perl (decode_json)

Perl decode_json() function is used for decoding JSON in Perl. This function returns the
value decoded from json to an appropriate Perl type.

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}';

23
 JSON

$text = decode_json($json);
print Dumper($text);

On executing, it will produce following result:

$VAR1 = {
'e' => 5,
'c' => 3,
'a' => 1,
'b' => 2,
'd' => 4
};

24
 JSON
9. JSON JSON with Python

This chapter covers how to encode and decode JSON objects using Python programming
language. Let's start with preparing the environment to start our programming with
Python for JSON.

Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Python, you need to install any
of the JSON modules available. For this tutorial we have downloaded and installed
Demjson (http://deron.meranda.us/python/demjson/) as follows:

$tar xvfz demjson-1.6.tar.gz

$cd demjson-1.6
$python setup.py install

JSON Functions
Function Libraries

encode Encodes the Python object into a JSON string representation.

decode Decodes a JSON-endoded string into a Python object.

Encoding JSON in Python (encode)

Python encode() function encodes the Python object into a JSON string representation.

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 } ]

25
 JSON

json = demjson.encode(data)
print json

While executing, this will produce the following result:

[{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}]

Decoding JSON in Python (decode)

Python can use demjson.decode() function for decoding JSON. This function returns the
value decoded from json to an appropriate Python type.

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

On executing, it will produce the following result:

{u'a': 1, u'c': 3, u'b': 2, u'e': 5, u'd': 4}

26
 JSON
10. JSON JSON with Ruby

This chapter covers how to encode and decode JSON objects using Ruby programming
language. Let's start with preparing the environment to start our programming with
Ruby for JSON.

Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Ruby, you 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

Parsing JSON using Ruby

The following example shows that the first 2 keys hold string values and the last 3 keys
hold arrays of strings. Let's keep the following content in a file called input.json.

{
"President": "Alan Isaac",
"CEO": "David Richardson",

"India": [
"Sachin Tendulkar",
"Virender Sehwag",
"Gautam Gambhir",
],

"Srilanka": [
"Lasith Malinga",
"Angelo Mathews",
"Kumar Sangakkara"
],

"England": [
"Alastair Cook",

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"Jonathan Trott",
"Kevin Pietersen"
]
}

Given below is a Ruby program that will be used to parse the above mentioned JSON
document:

#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'rubygems'
require 'json'
require 'pp'

json = File.read('input.json')
obj = JSON.parse(json)

pp obj

On executing, it will produce the 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"]
}

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 JSON
11. JSON JSON with Java

This chapter covers how to encode and decode JSON objects using Java programming
language. Let's start with preparing the environment to start our programming with Java
for JSON.

Environment
Before you start with encoding and decoding JSON using Java, you need to install any of
the JSON modules available. For this tutorial we have downloaded and
installed JSON.simple (https://code.google.com/p/json-simple/) and have added the
location of json-simple-1.1.1.jar file to the environment variable CLASSPATH.

Mapping between JSON and Java entities

JSON.simple maps entities from the left side to the right side while decoding or parsing,
and maps entities from the right to the left while encoding.

JSON Java

string java.lang.String

number java.lang.Number

true|false ava.lang.Boolean

null null

array java.util.List

object java.util.Map

On decoding, the default concrete class of java.util.List is org.json.simple.JSONArray and

the default concrete class of java.util.Map is org.json.simple.JSONObject.

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 JSON

Encoding JSON in Java

Following is a simple example to encode a JSON object using Java JSONObject which is a
subclass of java.util.HashMap. No ordering is provided. If you need the strict ordering of
elements, use JSONValue.toJSONString (map) method with ordered map implementation
such as java.util.LinkedHashMap.

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);
}
}

On compiling and executing the above program the following result will be generated:

{"balance": 1000.21, "num":100, "is_vip":true, "name":"foo"}

Following is another example that shows a 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));

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 JSON

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);
}
}

On compiling and executing the above program the following result is generated:

{"balance": 1000.21, "num":100, "is_vip":true, "name":"foo"}

Decoding JSON in Java

The following example makes use of JSONObject and JSONArray where JSONObject is
a java.util.Map and JSONArray is a java.util.List, so you can access them with standard
operations of Map or List.

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);

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 JSON

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);
}
}
}

On compiling and executing the above program, the following result will be generated:

The 2nd element of array

{"1":{"2":{"3":{"4":[5,{"6":7}]}}}}

Field "1"
{"2":{"3":{"4":[5,{"6":7}]}}}
{}
[5]
[5,2]

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 JSON
12. JSON JSON with Ajax

AJAX is Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which is used on the client side as a group of
interrelated web development techniques, in order to create asynchronous web
applications. According to the AJAX model, web applications can send and retrieve data
from a server asynchronously without interfering with the display and the behavior of
the existing page.

Many developers use JSON to pass AJAX updates between the client and the 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 the web
server. AJAX is used so that JavaScript can retrieve these JSON files when necessary,
parse them, and perform one of the following operations:

Store the parsed values in the variables for further processing before displaying
them on the webpage.

It directly assigns the data to the DOM elements in the webpage, so that they are
displayed on the website.

Example
The following code shows JSON with AJAX. Save it as ajax.htm file. Here the loading
function loadJSON() is 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");

33
 JSON

}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">

34
 JSON

<button type="button" onclick="loadJSON()">Update Details </button>

</body>
</html>

Given below is the input file data.json, having data in JSON format which will be
uploaded asynchronously when we click the Update Detail button. This file is being kept
in http://www.tutorialspoint.com/json/.

{"name": "brett", "country": "Australia"}

The above HTML code will generate the following screen, where you can check AJAX in
action:

Cricketer Details

Name Country

Sachin India

Update Details:
When you click on the Update Detail button, you should get a result something as
follows. You can try JSON with AJAX yourself, provided your browser supports Javascript.

Cricketer Details

Name Country

Brett Australia

35