[](http://isitmaintained.com/project/nlohmann/json "Average time to resolve an issue")
- **Intuitive syntax**. In languages such as Python, JSON feels like a first class data type. We used all the operator magic of modern C++ to achieve the same feeling in your code. Check out the [examples below](#examples) and you'll know what I mean.
- **Trivial integration**. Our whole code consists of a single header file [`json.hpp`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp). That's it. No library, no subproject, no dependencies, no complex build system. The class is written in vanilla C++11. All in all, everything should require no adjustment of your compiler flags or project settings.
- **Serious testing**. Our class is heavily [unit-tested](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/tree/develop/test/src) and covers [100%](https://coveralls.io/r/nlohmann/json) of the code, including all exceptional behavior. Furthermore, we checked with [Valgrind](http://valgrind.org) and the [Clang Sanitizers](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/index.html) that there are no memory leaks. [Google OSS-Fuzz](https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz/tree/master/projects/json) additionally runs fuzz tests agains all parsers 24/7, effectively executing billions of tests so far. To maintain high quality, the project is following the [Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) best practices](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/289).
- **Memory efficiency**. Each JSON object has an overhead of one pointer (the maximal size of a union) and one enumeration element (1 byte). The default generalization uses the following C++ data types: `std::string` for strings, `int64_t`, `uint64_t` or `double` for numbers, `std::map` for objects, `std::vector` for arrays, and `bool` for Booleans. However, you can template the generalized class `basic_json` to your needs.
- **Speed**. There are certainly [faster JSON libraries](https://github.com/miloyip/nativejson-benchmark#parsing-time) out there. However, if your goal is to speed up your development by adding JSON support with a single header, then this library is the way to go. If you know how to use a `std::vector` or `std::map`, you are already set.
[`json.hpp`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp) is the single required file in `single_include/nlohmann` or [released here](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/releases). You need to add
You can further use file [`include/nlohmann/json_fwd.hpp`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/include/nlohmann/json_fwd.hpp) for forward-declarations. The installation of json_fwd.hpp (as part of cmake's install step), can be achieved by setting `-DJSON_MultipleHeaders=ON`.
You can also use the `nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json` interface target in CMake. This target populates the appropriate usage requirements for `INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES` to point to the appropriate include directories and `INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES` for the necessary C++11 flags.
#### External
To use this library from a CMake project, you can locate it directly with `find_package()` and use the namespaced imported target from the generated package configuration:
To embed the library directly into an existing CMake project, place the entire source tree in a subdirectory and call `add_subdirectory()` in your `CMakeLists.txt` file:
```cmake
# Typically you don't care so much for a third party library's tests to be
# run from your own project's code.
set(JSON_BuildTests OFF CACHE INTERNAL "")
# Don't use include(nlohmann_json/CMakeLists.txt) since that carries with it
# inintended consequences that will break the build. It's generally
# discouraged (although not necessarily well documented as such) to use
# include(...) for pulling in other CMake projects anyways.
:beer: If you are using OS X and [Homebrew](http://brew.sh), just type `brew tap nlohmann/json` and `brew install nlohmann_json` and you're set. If you want the bleeding edge rather than the latest release, use `brew install nlohmann_json --HEAD`.
If you are using the [Meson Build System](http://mesonbuild.com), then you can get a wrap file by downloading it from [Meson WrapDB](https://wrapdb.mesonbuild.com/nlohmann_json), or simply use `meson wrap install nlohmann_json`.
If you are using [Conan](https://www.conan.io/) to manage your dependencies, merely add `jsonformoderncpp/x.y.z@vthiery/stable` to your `conanfile.py`'s requires, where `x.y.z` is the release version you want to use. Please file issues [here](https://github.com/vthiery/conan-jsonformoderncpp/issues) if you experience problems with the packages.
If you are using [Spack](https://www.spack.io/) to manage your dependencies, you can use the `nlohmann_json` package. Please see the [spack project](https://github.com/spack/spack) for any issues regarding the packaging.
If you are using [hunter](https://github.com/ruslo/hunter/) on your project for external dependencies, then you can use the [nlohmann_json package](https://docs.hunter.sh/en/latest/packages/pkg/nlohmann_json.html). Please see the hunter project for any issues regarding the packaging.
If you are using [Buckaroo](https://buckaroo.pm), you can install this library's module with `buckaroo install nlohmann/json`. Please file issues [here](https://github.com/LoopPerfect/buckaroo-recipes/issues/new?title=nlohmann/nlohmann/json).
If you are using [vcpkg](https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg/) on your project for external dependencies, then you can use the [nlohmann-json package](https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg/tree/master/ports/nlohmann-json). Please see the vcpkg project for any issues regarding the packaging.
If you are using [cget](http://cget.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), you can install the latest development version with `cget install nlohmann/json`. A specific version can be installed with `cget install nlohmann/json@v3.1.0`. Also, the multiple header version can be installed by adding the `-DJSON_MultipleHeaders=ON` flag (i.e., `cget install nlohmann/json -DJSON_MultipleHeaders=ON`).
If you are using [CocoaPods](https://cocoapods.org), you can use the library by adding pod `"nlohmann_json", '~>3.1.2'` to your podfile (see [an example](https://bitbucket.org/benman/nlohmann_json-cocoapod/src/master/)). Please file issues [here](https://bitbucket.org/benman/nlohmann_json-cocoapod/issues?status=new&status=open).
Beside the examples below, you may want to check the [documentation](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/) where each function contains a separate code example (e.g., check out [`emplace()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a5338e282d1d02bed389d852dd670d98d.html#a5338e282d1d02bed389d852dd670d98d)). All [example files](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/tree/develop/doc/examples) can be compiled and executed on their own (e.g., file [emplace.cpp](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/doc/examples/emplace.cpp)).
Note that in all these cases, you never need to "tell" the compiler which JSON value type you want to use. If you want to be explicit or express some edge cases, the functions [`json::array`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_aa80485befaffcadaa39965494e0b4d2e.html#aa80485befaffcadaa39965494e0b4d2e) and [`json::object`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_aa13f7c0615867542ce80337cbcf13ada.html#aa13f7c0615867542ce80337cbcf13ada) will help:
Note that without appending the `_json` suffix, the passed string literal is not parsed, but just used as JSON string value. That is, `json j = "{ \"happy\": true, \"pi\": 3.141 }"` would just store the string `"{ "happy": true, "pi": 3.141 }"` rather than parsing the actual object.
The above example can also be expressed explicitly using [`json::parse()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_aa9676414f2e36383c4b181fe856aa3c0.html#aa9676414f2e36383c4b181fe856aa3c0):
[`.dump()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a5adea76fedba9898d404fef8598aa663.html#a5adea76fedba9898d404fef8598aa663) always returns the serialized value, and [`.get<std::string>()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a16f9445f7629f634221a42b967cdcd43.html#a16f9445f7629f634221a42b967cdcd43) returns the originally stored string value.
Note the library only supports UTF-8. When you store strings with different encodings in the library, calling [`dump()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a5adea76fedba9898d404fef8598aa663.html#a5adea76fedba9898d404fef8598aa663) may throw an exception unless `json::error_handler_t::replace` or `json::error_handler_t::ignore` are used as error handlers.
Please note that setting the exception bit for `failbit` is inappropriate for this use case. It will result in program termination due to the `noexcept` specifier in use.
You can also parse JSON from an iterator range; that is, from any container accessible by iterators whose content is stored as contiguous byte sequence, for instance a `std::vector<std::uint8_t>`:
The return value of each function determines whether parsing should proceed.
To implement your own SAX handler, proceed as follows:
1. Implement the SAX interface in a class. You can use class `nlohmann::json_sax<json>` as base class, but you can also use any class where the functions described above are implemented and public.
2. Create an object of your SAX interface class, e.g. `my_sax`.
3. Call `bool json::sax_parse(input, &my_sax)`; where the first parameter can be any input like a string or an input stream and the second parameter is a pointer to your SAX interface.
Note the `sax_parse` function only returns a `bool` indicating the result of the last executed SAX event. It does not return a `json` value - it is up to you to decide what to do with the SAX events. Furthermore, no exceptions are thrown in case of a parse error - it is up to you what to do with the exception object passed to your `parse_error` implementation. Internally, the SAX interface is used for the DOM parser (class `json_sax_dom_parser`) as well as the acceptor (`json_sax_acceptor`), see file [`json_sax.hpp`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/include/nlohmann/detail/input/json_sax.hpp).
We designed the JSON class to behave just like an STL container. In fact, it satisfies the [**ReversibleContainer**](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/named_req/ReversibleContainer) requirement.
Any sequence container (`std::array`, `std::vector`, `std::deque`, `std::forward_list`, `std::list`) whose values can be used to construct JSON values (e.g., integers, floating point numbers, Booleans, string types, or again STL containers described in this section) can be used to create a JSON array. The same holds for similar associative containers (`std::set`, `std::multiset`, `std::unordered_set`, `std::unordered_multiset`), but in these cases the order of the elements of the array depends on how the elements are ordered in the respective STL container.
Likewise, any associative key-value containers (`std::map`, `std::multimap`, `std::unordered_map`, `std::unordered_multimap`) whose keys can construct an `std::string` and whose values can be used to construct JSON values (see examples above) can be used to create a JSON object. Note that in case of multimaps only one key is used in the JSON object and the value depends on the internal order of the STL container.
The library supports **JSON Pointer** ([RFC 6901](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6901)) as alternative means to address structured values. On top of this, **JSON Patch** ([RFC 6902](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902)) allows to describe differences between two JSON values - effectively allowing patch and diff operations known from Unix.
The library supports **JSON Merge Patch** ([RFC 7386](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7386)) as a patch format. Instead of using JSON Pointer (see above) to specify values to be manipulated, it describes the changes using a syntax that closely mimics the document being modified.
* Those methods **MUST** be in your type's namespace (which can be the global namespace), or the library will not be able to locate them (in this example, they are in namespace `ns`, where `person` is defined).
* Those methods **MUST** be available (e.g., properly headers must be included) everywhere you use the implicit conversions. Look at [issue 1108](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/1108) for errors that may occur otherwise.
* When using `get<your_type>()`, `your_type`**MUST** be [DefaultConstructible](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/named_req/DefaultConstructible). (There is a way to bypass this requirement described later.)
* In function `from_json`, use function [`at()`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a93403e803947b86f4da2d1fb3345cf2c.html#a93403e803947b86f4da2d1fb3345cf2c) to access the object values rather than `operator[]`. In case a key does not exist, `at` throws an exception that you can handle, whereas `operator[]` exhibits undefined behavior.
* In case your type contains several `operator=` definitions, code like `your_variable = your_json;` [may not compile](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/667). You need to write `your_variable = your_json.get<decltype(your_variable)>();` or `your_json.get_to(your_variable);` instead.
The default serializer for `nlohmann::json` is `nlohmann::adl_serializer` (ADL means [Argument-Dependent Lookup](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/adl)).
This serializer works fine when you have control over the type's namespace. However, what about `boost::optional` or `std::filesystem::path` (C++17)? Hijacking the `boost` namespace is pretty bad, and it's illegal to add something other than template specializations to `std`...
There is a way, if your type is [MoveConstructible](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/named_req/MoveConstructible). You will need to specialize the `adl_serializer` as well, but with a special `from_json` overload:
Yes. You might want to take a look at [`unit-udt.cpp`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/test/src/unit-udt.cpp) in the test suite, to see a few examples.
By default, enum values are serialized to JSON as integers. In some cases this could result in undesired behavior. If an enum is modified or re-ordered after data has been serialized to JSON, the later de-serialized JSON data may be undefined or a different enum value than was originally intended.
It is possible to more precisely specify how a given enum is mapped to and from JSON as shown below:
```cpp
// example enum type declaration
enum TaskState {
TS_STOPPED,
TS_RUNNING,
TS_COMPLETED,
TS_INVALID=-1,
};
// map TaskState values to JSON as strings
NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM( TaskState, {
{TS_INVALID, nullptr},
{TS_STOPPED, "stopped"},
{TS_RUNNING, "running"},
{TS_COMPLETED, "completed"},
});
```
The `NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM()` macro declares a set of `to_json()` / `from_json()` functions for type `TaskState` while avoiding repetition and boilerplate serilization code.
**Usage:**
```cpp
// enum to JSON as string
json j = TS_STOPPED;
assert(j == "stopped");
// json string to enum
json j3 = "running";
assert(j3.get<TaskState>() == TS_RUNNING);
// undefined json value to enum (where the first map entry above is the default)
json jPi = 3.14;
assert(jPi.get<TaskState>() == TS_INVALID );
```
Just as in [Arbitrary Type Conversions](#arbitrary-types-conversions) above,
-`NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM()` MUST be declared in your enum type's namespace (which can be the global namespace), or the library will not be able to locate it and it will default to integer serialization.
- It MUST be available (e.g., proper headers must be included) everywhere you use the conversions.
Other Important points:
- When using `get<ENUM_TYPE>()`, undefined JSON values will default to the first pair specified in your map. Select this default pair carefully.
- If an enum or JSON value is specified more than once in your map, the first matching occurrence from the top of the map will be returned when converting to or from JSON.
Though JSON is a ubiquitous data format, it is not a very compact format suitable for data exchange, for instance over a network. Hence, the library supports [CBOR](http://cbor.io) (Concise Binary Object Representation), [MessagePack](http://msgpack.org), and [UBJSON](http://ubjson.org) (Universal Binary JSON Specification) to efficiently encode JSON values to byte vectors and to decode such vectors.
- GCC 4.8 has a bug [57824](https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=57824)): multiline raw strings cannot be the arguments to macros. Don't use multiline raw strings directly in macros with this compiler.
- Android defaults to using very old compilers and C++ libraries. To fix this, add the following to your `Application.mk`. This will switch to the LLVM C++ library, the Clang compiler, and enable C++11 and other features disabled by default.
The code compiles successfully with [Android NDK](https://developer.android.com/ndk/index.html?hl=ml), Revision 9 - 11 (and possibly later) and [CrystaX's Android NDK](https://www.crystax.net/en/android/ndk) version 10.
- For GCC running on MinGW or Android SDK, the error `'to_string' is not a member of 'std'` (or similarly, for `strtod`) may occur. Note this is not an issue with the code, but rather with the compiler itself. On Android, see above to build with a newer environment. For MinGW, please refer to [this site](http://tehsausage.com/mingw-to-string) and [this discussion](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/136) for information on how to fix this bug. For Android NDK using `APP_STL := gnustl_static`, please refer to [this discussion](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/219).
- Unsupported versions of GCC and Clang are rejected by `#error` directives. This can be switched off by defining `JSON_SKIP_UNSUPPORTED_COMPILER_CHECK`. Note that you can expect no support in this case.
The following compilers are currently used in continuous integration at [Travis](https://travis-ci.org/nlohmann/json) and [AppVeyor](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nlohmann/json):
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
If you have questions regarding the library, I would like to invite you to [open an issue at GitHub](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/new). Please describe your request, problem, or question as detailed as possible, and also mention the version of the library you are using as well as the version of your compiler and operating system. Opening an issue at GitHub allows other users and contributors to this library to collaborate. For instance, I have little experience with MSVC, and most issues in this regard have been solved by a growing community. If you have a look at the [closed issues](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed), you will see that we react quite timely in most cases.
Only if your request would contain confidential information, please [send me an email](mailto:mail@nlohmann.me). For encrypted messages, please use [this key](https://keybase.io/nlohmann/pgp_keys.asc).
[Commits by Niels Lohmann](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/commits) and [releases](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/releases) are signed with this [PGP Key](https://keybase.io/nlohmann/pgp_keys.asc?fingerprint=797167ae41c0a6d9232e48457f3cea63ae251b69).
- [Teemperor](https://github.com/Teemperor) implemented CMake support and lcov integration, realized escape and Unicode handling in the string parser, and fixed the JSON serialization.
- [elliotgoodrich](https://github.com/elliotgoodrich) fixed an issue with double deletion in the iterator classes.
- [kirkshoop](https://github.com/kirkshoop) made the iterators of the class composable to other libraries.
- [wancw](https://github.com/wanwc) fixed a bug that hindered the class to compile with Clang.
- Tomas Åblad found a bug in the iterator implementation.
- [Aaron Burghardt](https://github.com/aburgh) implemented code to parse streams incrementally. Furthermore, he greatly improved the parser class by allowing the definition of a filter function to discard undesired elements while parsing.
- [Eric Cornelius](https://github.com/EricMCornelius) pointed out a bug in the handling with NaN and infinity values. He also improved the performance of the string escaping.
- [gregmarr](https://github.com/gregmarr) simplified the implementation of reverse iterators and helped with numerous hints and improvements. In particular, he pushed forward the implementation of user-defined types.
- [dariomt](https://github.com/dariomt) fixed a subtlety in MSVC type support and implemented the `get_ref()` function to get a reference to stored values.
- [twelsby](https://github.com/twelsby) fixed the array subscript operator, an issue that failed the MSVC build, and floating-point parsing/dumping. He further added support for unsigned integer numbers and implemented better roundtrip support for parsed numbers.
- [Théo DELRIEU](https://github.com/theodelrieu) patiently and constructively oversaw the long way toward [iterator-range parsing](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/290). He also implemented the magic behind the serialization/deserialization of user-defined types and split the single header file into smaller chunks.
- [TurpentineDistillery](https://github.com/TurpentineDistillery) pointed to [`std::locale::classic()`](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/locale/locale/classic) to avoid too much locale joggling, found some nice performance improvements in the parser, improved the benchmarking code, and realized locale-independent number parsing and printing.
- [Kert](https://github.com/kaidokert) allowed to template the string type in the serialization and added the possibility to override the exceptional behavior.
- [mark-99](https://github.com/mark-99) helped fixing an ICC error.
- [Chuck Atkins](https://github.com/chuckatkins) adjusted the CMake files to the CMake packaging guidelines and provided documentation for the CMake integration.
The library itself consists of a single header file licensed under the MIT license. However, it is built, tested, documented, and whatnot using a lot of third-party tools and services. Thanks a lot!
- [**GitHub Changelog Generator**](https://github.com/skywinder/github-changelog-generator) to generate the [ChangeLog](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/ChangeLog.md)
- [**OSS-Fuzz**](https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz) for continuous fuzz testing of the library ([project repository](https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz/tree/master/projects/json))
- [**Probot**](https://probot.github.io) for automating maintainer tasks such as closing stale issues, requesting missing information, or detecting toxic comments.
- [**send_to_wandbox**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/doc/scripts/send_to_wandbox.py) to send code examples to [Wandbox](http://melpon.org/wandbox)
- [**Travis**](https://travis-ci.org) for [continuous integration](https://travis-ci.org/nlohmann/json) on Linux and macOS
- [**Valgrind**](http://valgrind.org) to check for correct memory management
The library is currently used in Apple macOS Sierra and iOS 10. I am not sure what they are using the library for, but I am happy that it runs on so many devices.
- The code contains numerous debug **assertions** which can be switched off by defining the preprocessor macro `NDEBUG`, see the [documentation of `assert`](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/error/assert). In particular, note [`operator[]`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a2e26bd0b0168abb61f67ad5bcd5b9fa1.html#a2e26bd0b0168abb61f67ad5bcd5b9fa1) implements **unchecked access** for const objects: If the given key is not present, the behavior is undefined (think of a dereferenced null pointer) and yields an [assertion failure](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/289) if assertions are switched on. If you are not sure whether an element in an object exists, use checked access with the [`at()` function](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a674de1ee73e6bf4843fc5dc1351fb726.html#a674de1ee73e6bf4843fc5dc1351fb726).
- As the exact type of a number is not defined in the [JSON specification](http://rfc7159.net/rfc7159), this library tries to choose the best fitting C++ number type automatically. As a result, the type `double` may be used to store numbers which may yield [**floating-point exceptions**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/181) in certain rare situations if floating-point exceptions have been unmasked in the calling code. These exceptions are not caused by the library and need to be fixed in the calling code, such as by re-masking the exceptions prior to calling library functions.
- The library supports **Unicode input** as follows:
- Only **UTF-8** encoded input is supported which is the default encoding for JSON according to [RFC 7159](http://rfc7159.net/rfc7159#rfc.section.8.1).
- The strings stored in the library are UTF-8 encoded. When using the default string type (`std::string`), note that its length/size functions return the number of stored bytes rather than the number of characters or glyphs.
- **Exceptions** are used widely within the library. They can, however, be switched off with either using the compiler flag `-fno-exceptions` or by defining the symbol `JSON_NOEXCEPTION`. In this case, exceptions are replaced by an `abort()` call.
- By default, the library does not preserve the **insertion order of object elements**. This is standards-compliant, as the [JSON standard](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159.html) defines objects as "an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs". If you do want to preserve the insertion order, you can specialize the object type with containers like [`tsl::ordered_map`](https://github.com/Tessil/ordered-map) ([integration](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/546#issuecomment-304447518)) or [`nlohmann::fifo_map`](https://github.com/nlohmann/fifo_map) ([integration](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/485#issuecomment-333652309)).
