JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way of expressing information.^[1] JSON is usually easy to understand. It can express information like XML.^[2] It is based on JavaScript's notation for object literals.^[3] However, JSON is stricter.^[3]

JSON and XML are both often used in AJAX.^[4] Even though JSON is named after JavaScript, it can be used in other programming languages, such as Python (PHP, etc.)^[5]

Example

This is an example of JSON:

{     "firstName": "John",     "lastName" : "Smith",     "age"      : 25,     "address"  :     {         "streetAddress": "21 2nd Street",         "city"         : "New York",         "state"        : "NY",         "postalCode"   : "10021"     },     "phoneNumber":     [         {           "type"  : "",           "number": "212 555-1234"         },         {           "type"  : "fax",           "number": "646 555-4567"         }     ] }

JSON Encoding and Decoding in Python

Encoding:

import jsonsampleDict = {  "firstName": "John",  "lastName" : "Smith"}sampleJson = json.dumps(sampleDict, indent=4)

Decoding:

import json# A JSON string or can be a JSON responsesampleJson = """{ "firstName": "John", "lastName" : "Smith"}"""sampleDict = json.loads(sampleJson)print(sampleDict['firstName'])print(sampleDict['lastName'])

References

Other websites

JSON website

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