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December 25, 2020 08:57 pm GMT

What is JSON? And why do you need it?

Before going on to the topic JSON, I would like to discuss a simple example because it will be a lot easier to explainJSONafter the example.

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Suppose we are developing desktop software or a web application. So, for the desktop software we need to save the changes of settings that users have made so that when he/she opens the software again at another time, he/she doesnt need to change the settings again as he/she changed it earlier. Also, its a very annoying thing for a user to config the same changes at every start. Now, what about web applications? Web apps have one or more databases to store changes. Lets think about a drawback here. Web apps need to store many temporary configuration or data to serve the user with a good experience for that session. And its an obvious thing that, developers cant let an app to make the database busy for some temporary session data. Now, the question comes about how we store these changes or temporary data on storage? Confused? Again thinking about usingdatabaseslikeOracle,Mariadb? Of course, we can do that but its not an efficient solution here. Ok, Keep down your thinking a bit and Im keeping all the hard things aside, just store the data as aText file. Wow, our storing problem is solved. But a new problem is knocking at the door, how to retrieve the data and get the samedata structuresin the same manner that we had applied in the application? On a simple text file, there are lackings of data formation for thedata structuresthat we use in any program. Here comes the life-saving concept of data serialization, also we are very close to jumping onJSON.

What is Data Serialization?

Data Serialization is the process of converting structured data to a format that allows sharing or storage of the data in a form that allows recovery of its original structure when needed. The reason for serializing data is finding some sort of universal format that can be easily shared across different applications.

What is JSON?

JSONis a data interchanging format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of data structure and its the most widespread format for data serialization. SimplyJSONis text, written with JavaScript object notation.JavaScript Object Notation is the full form ofJSON. Many developers dont likeJavaScriptbecause of their perspectives. But dont worry, its alright if your knowledge is empty aboutJavaScript.

JSON Example

Why JSON?

JSONis mainly intended for data interchanging among the applications. Parsing data from one application to another throughJSONis so much easy because of itslanguage-independentdata format. Almost every programming language has JSON support through official and 3rd party. Now, referencing my example,JSONcan be used as a configuration or temporary data storing file also for any application. There is an important fact thatJSONlacksAbstract Data Type(ADT) feature because of its data serialization format which breaks the opacity ofADTby potentially exposing private implementation details.

A very popular database named MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with the schema.

Basics of JSON

JSONuses .json for filename extension. You can write JSON file using normal text editors likeWindowss built-in Notepad.JSONsupports String, Number, Object (JSON object)/Hashmap, Array/List, Boolean and N*ull* data types.

Lets see some examples

String

{  "name": "Rizwan Hasan"}
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Number

{  "age": 20}
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  • JSON names require double quotes ("").
  • JSON uses a colon (:) for separating names and values.

Objects / Hashmap

{  "student": {    "name": "Rizwan Hasan",    "age": 21,    "sex": "Male"  }}
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  • Here key student has an object value and that object has some names.

  • JSON uses curly braces ({}) for object separation and commas (,) for names separation.

Array / List

{  "students": [    "Rizwan",    "Sakib",    "Natsu"  ]}
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  • Here key student have an array value and that array has some name element.
  • JSON uses square brackets ([]) for array declaring and commas (,) for element separation.

Boolean

{  "answer": true}
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Null

{  "nickname": null}
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Data types in Nested manner

{  "students": [    {      "id": 101,      "name": "Rizwan Hasan",      "age": 21,      "department": "CSE",      "sex": "Male",      "paid": true,      "cgpa": 2.13    },    {      "id": 102,      "name": "Faria Hasan",      "age": 20,      "department": "BBA",      "sex": "Female",      "paid": true,      "cgpa": 3.56    }  ]}
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Explanation:

Here we are storing some student's information. First, there is an object whichs key is named students and the value is an array blocked with square brackets.In the array, there is two students information. Every element of the array is also an object and they contain some information name, age, department, sex, paid, and GPA. Name, department, and sex are strings. Id, age, and, GPA is numbers. Lastly paid is boolean.

Conclusion

So far I discussed JSON but still, there are a lot of things to know about like how to use it with different programming languages and how to do data interchanging between two or more languages. Here I only focused on giving the basics because after this pretty basic you are ready to go with JSON more advanced and also with the upgraded version of JSON calledYAML. To learn more about JSON, I suggest this free online tutorial from Tutorialspointhere. In the future, I will try to cover how to use JSON with popular programming languages like Python, Java, Kotlin, and C++.

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Original Link: https://dev.to/techlearners/what-is-json-and-why-do-you-need-it-21nd

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