[](https://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. The library is also included in all popular [package managers](https://json.nlohmann.me/integration/package_managers/).
- **Serious testing**. Our code is heavily [unit-tested](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/tree/develop/tests/src) and covers [100%](https://coveralls.io/r/nlohmann/json) of the code, including all exceptional behavior. Furthermore, we checked with [Valgrind](https://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 against 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). See the [quality assurance](https://json.nlohmann.me/community/quality_assurance) overview documentation.
- **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.
:question: If you have a **question**, please check if it is already answered in the [**FAQ**](https://json.nlohmann.me/home/faq/) or the [**Q&A**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/discussions/categories/q-a) section. If not, please [**ask a new question**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/discussions/new) there.
:books: If you want to **learn more** about how to use the library, check out the rest of the [**README**](#examples), have a look at [**code examples**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/tree/develop/docs/mkdocs/docs/examples), or browse through the [**help pages**](https://json.nlohmann.me).
:construction: If you want to understand the **API** better, check out the [**API Reference**](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/) or have a look at the [quick reference](#quick-reference) below.
:bug: If you found a **bug**, please check the [**FAQ**](https://json.nlohmann.me/home/faq/) if it is a known issue or the result of a design decision. Please also have a look at the [**issue list**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues) before you [**create a new issue**](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/new/choose). Please provide as much information as possible to help us understand and reproduce your issue.
There is also a [**docset**](https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/JSON_for_Modern_C%2B%2B) for the documentation browsers [Dash](https://kapeli.com/dash), [Velocity](https://velocity.silverlakesoftware.com), and [Zeal](https://zealdocs.org) that contains the full [documentation](https://json.nlohmann.me) as an offline resource.
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://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/array/) and [`json::object()`](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/object/) will help:
Note the library only supports UTF-8. When you store strings with different encodings in the library, calling [`dump()`](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/dump/) 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 `value_type` is an integral type of 1, 2, or 4 bytes, which will be interpreted as UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 respectively. For instance, a `std::vector<std::uint8_t>`, or a `std::list<std::uint16_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 an alternative means to address structured values. On top of this, **JSON Patch** ([RFC 6902](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902)) allows describing 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.
You can switch off implicit conversions by defining `JSON_USE_IMPLICIT_CONVERSIONS` to `0` before including the `json.hpp` header. When using CMake, you can also achieve this by setting the option `JSON_ImplicitConversions` to `OFF`.
- 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., proper headers must be included) everywhere you use these conversions. Look at [issue 1108](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/1108) for errors that may occur otherwise.
- When using `template 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://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/at/) 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.
- You do not need to add serializers or deserializers for STL types like `std::vector`: the library already implements these.
If you just want to serialize/deserialize some structs, the `to_json`/`from_json` functions can be a lot of boilerplate. There are [**several macros**](https://json.nlohmann.me/features/arbitrary_types/#simplify-your-life-with-macros) to make your life easier as long as you (1) want to use a JSON object as serialization and (2) want to use the member variable names as object keys in that object.
Which macro to choose depends on whether private member variables need to be accessed, a deserialization is needed, missing values should yield an error or should be replaced by default values, and if derived classes are used. See [this overview to choose the right one for your use case](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/macros/#serializationdeserialization-macros).
The `to_json`/`from_json` functions for the `person` struct above can be created with [`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE`](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/macros/nlohmann_define_type_non_intrusive/). In all macros, the first parameter is the name of the class/struct, and all remaining parameters name the members.
Here is another example with private members, where [`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE`](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/macros/nlohmann_define_type_intrusive/) is needed:
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/tests/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 deserialized JSON data may be undefined or a different enum value than was originally intended.
The `NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM()` macro declares a set of `to_json()` / `from_json()` functions for type `TaskState` while avoiding repetition and boilerplate serialization code.
-`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.
- When using `template 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 [BSON](https://bsonspec.org) (Binary JSON), [CBOR](https://cbor.io) (Concise Binary Object Representation), [MessagePack](https://msgpack.org), [UBJSON](https://ubjson.org) (Universal Binary JSON Specification) and [BJData](https://neurojson.org/bjdata) (Binary JData) to efficiently encode JSON values to byte vectors and to decode such vectors.
The library also supports binary types from BSON, CBOR (byte strings), and MessagePack (bin, ext, fixext). They are stored by default as `std::vector<std::uint8_t>` to be processed outside the library.
The library is used in multiple projects, applications, operating systems, etc. The list below is not exhaustive, but the result of an internet search. If you know further customers of the library, please let me know, see [contact](#contact).
- 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` or `strtof`) 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](https://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.
[`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
```cpp
#include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
// for convenience
using json = nlohmann::json;
```
to the files you want to process JSON and set the necessary switches to enable C++11 (e.g., `-std=c++11` for GCC and Clang).
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:
The package configuration file, `nlohmann_jsonConfig.cmake`, can be used either from an install tree or directly out of the build tree.
#### Embedded
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 "")
# If you only include this third party in PRIVATE source files, you do not
# need to install it when your main project gets installed.
# set(JSON_Install OFF CACHE INTERNAL "")
# Don't use include(nlohmann_json/CMakeLists.txt) since that carries with it
# unintended 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.
The library is part of many package managers. See the [**documentation**](https://json.nlohmann.me/integration/package_managers/) for detailed descriptions and examples.
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.
- The class contains a copy of [Hedley](https://nemequ.github.io/hedley/) from Evan Nemerson which is licensed as [CC0-1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).
- The class contains parts of [Google Abseil](https://github.com/abseil/abseil-cpp) which is licensed under the [Apache 2.0 License](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0).
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/choose). 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).
1. [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.
2. [elliotgoodrich](https://github.com/elliotgoodrich) fixed an issue with double deletion in the iterator classes.
3. [kirkshoop](https://github.com/kirkshoop) made the iterators of the class composable to other libraries.
4. [wancw](https://github.com/wanwc) fixed a bug that hindered the class to compile with Clang.
5. Tomas Åblad found a bug in the iterator implementation.
6. [Joshua C. Randall](https://github.com/jrandall) fixed a bug in the floating-point serialization.
7. [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.
8. [Daniel Kopeček](https://github.com/dkopecek) fixed a bug in the compilation with GCC 5.0.
9. [Florian Weber](https://github.com/Florianjw) fixed a bug in and improved the performance of the comparison operators.
10. [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.
11. [易思龙](https://github.com/likebeta) implemented a conversion from anonymous enums.
13. [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.
14. [Caio Luppi](https://github.com/caiovlp) fixed a bug in the Unicode handling.
15. [dariomt](https://github.com/dariomt) fixed some typos in the examples.
16. [Daniel Frey](https://github.com/d-frey) cleaned up some pointers and implemented exception-safe memory allocation.
17. [Colin Hirsch](https://github.com/ColinH) took care of a small namespace issue.
19. [Silverweed](https://github.com/silverweed) overloaded `parse()` to accept an rvalue reference.
20. [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.
21. [ZahlGraf](https://github.com/ZahlGraf) added a workaround that allows compilation using Android NDK.
22. [whackashoe](https://github.com/whackashoe) replaced a function that was marked as unsafe by Visual Studio.
23. [406345](https://github.com/406345) fixed two small warnings.
24. [Glen Fernandes](https://github.com/glenfe) noted a potential portability problem in the `has_mapped_type` function.
25. [Corbin Hughes](https://github.com/nibroc) fixed some typos in the contribution guidelines.
26. [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.
27. [Volker Diels-Grabsch](https://github.com/vog) fixed a link in the README file.
28. [msm-](https://github.com/msm-) added support for American Fuzzy Lop.
29. [Annihil](https://github.com/Annihil) fixed an example in the README file.
30. [Themercee](https://github.com/Themercee) noted a wrong URL in the README file.
31. [Lv Zheng](https://github.com/lv-zheng) fixed a namespace issue with `int64_t` and `uint64_t`.
32. [abc100m](https://github.com/abc100m) analyzed the issues with GCC 4.8 and proposed a [partial solution](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/pull/212).
33. [zewt](https://github.com/zewt) added useful notes to the README file about Android.
34. [Róbert Márki](https://github.com/robertmrk) added a fix to use move iterators and improved the integration via CMake.
35. [Chris Kitching](https://github.com/ChrisKitching) cleaned up the CMake files.
36. [Tom Needham](https://github.com/06needhamt) fixed a subtle bug with MSVC 2015 which was also proposed by [Michael K.](https://github.com/Epidal).
37. [Mário Feroldi](https://github.com/thelostt) fixed a small typo.
38. [duncanwerner](https://github.com/duncanwerner) found a really embarrassing performance regression in the 2.0.0 release.
39. [Damien](https://github.com/dtoma) fixed one of the last conversion warnings.
40. [Thomas Braun](https://github.com/t-b) fixed a warning in a test case and adjusted MSVC calls in the CI.
41. [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.
42. [Stefan](https://github.com/5tefan) fixed a minor issue in the documentation.
43. [Vasil Dimov](https://github.com/vasild) fixed the documentation regarding conversions from `std::multiset`.
44. [ChristophJud](https://github.com/ChristophJud) overworked the CMake files to ease project inclusion.
45. [Vladimir Petrigo](https://github.com/vpetrigo) made a SFINAE hack more readable and added Visual Studio 17 to the build matrix.
46. [Denis Andrejew](https://github.com/seeekr) fixed a grammar issue in the README file.
47. [Pierre-Antoine Lacaze](https://github.com/palacaze) found a subtle bug in the `dump()` function.
48. [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.
49. [cgzones](https://github.com/cgzones) had an idea how to fix the Coverity scan.
50. [Jared Grubb](https://github.com/jaredgrubb) silenced a nasty documentation warning.
51. [Yixin Zhang](https://github.com/qwename) fixed an integer overflow check.
52. [Bosswestfalen](https://github.com/Bosswestfalen) merged two iterator classes into a smaller one.
75. [Oleg Endo](https://github.com/olegendo) reduced the memory consumption by replacing `<iostream>` with `<iosfwd>`.
76. [dan-42](https://github.com/dan-42) cleaned up the CMake files to simplify including/reusing of the library.
77. [Nikita Ofitserov](https://github.com/himikof) allowed for moving values from initializer lists.
78. [Greg Hurrell](https://github.com/wincent) fixed a typo.
79. [Dmitry Kukovinets](https://github.com/DmitryKuk) fixed a typo.
80. [kbthomp1](https://github.com/kbthomp1) fixed an issue related to the Intel OSX compiler.
81. [Markus Werle](https://github.com/daixtrose) fixed a typo.
82. [WebProdPP](https://github.com/WebProdPP) fixed a subtle error in a precondition check.
83. [Alex](https://github.com/leha-bot) noted an error in a code sample.
84. [Tom de Geus](https://github.com/tdegeus) reported some warnings with ICC and helped to fix them.
85. [Perry Kundert](https://github.com/pjkundert) simplified reading from input streams.
86. [Sonu Lohani](https://github.com/sonulohani) fixed a small compilation error.
87. [Jamie Seward](https://github.com/jseward) fixed all MSVC warnings.
88. [Nate Vargas](https://github.com/eld00d) added a Doxygen tag file.
89. [pvleuven](https://github.com/pvleuven) helped to fix a warning in ICC.
90. [Pavel](https://github.com/crea7or) helped to fix some warnings in MSVC.
91. [Jamie Seward](https://github.com/jseward) avoided unnecessary string copies in `find()` and `count()`.
92. [Mitja](https://github.com/Itja) fixed some typos.
93. [Jorrit Wronski](https://github.com/jowr) updated the Hunter package links.
94. [Matthias Möller](https://github.com/TinyTinni) added a `.natvis` for the MSVC debug view.
95. [bogemic](https://github.com/bogemic) fixed some C++17 deprecation warnings.
96. [Eren Okka](https://github.com/erengy) fixed some MSVC warnings.
97. [abolz](https://github.com/abolz) integrated the Grisu2 algorithm for proper floating-point formatting, allowing more roundtrip checks to succeed.
98. [Vadim Evard](https://github.com/Pipeliner) fixed a Markdown issue in the README.
99. [zerodefect](https://github.com/zerodefect) fixed a compiler warning.
100. [Kert](https://github.com/kaidokert) allowed to template the string type in the serialization and added the possibility to override the exceptional behavior.
108. [Kevin Tonon](https://github.com/ktonon) overworked the C++11 compiler checks in CMake.
109. [Axel Huebl](https://github.com/ax3l) simplified a CMake check and added support for the [Spack package manager](https://spack.io).
110. [Carlos O'Ryan](https://github.com/coryan) fixed a typo.
111. [James Upjohn](https://github.com/jammehcow) fixed a version number in the compilers section.
112. [Chuck Atkins](https://github.com/chuckatkins) adjusted the CMake files to the CMake packaging guidelines and provided documentation for the CMake integration.
113. [Jan Schöppach](https://github.com/dns13) fixed a typo.
114. [martin-mfg](https://github.com/martin-mfg) fixed a typo.
115. [Matthias Möller](https://github.com/TinyTinni) removed the dependency from `std::stringstream`.
116. [agrianius](https://github.com/agrianius) added code to use alternative string implementations.
117. [Daniel599](https://github.com/Daniel599) allowed to use more algorithms with the `items()` function.
162. [Patrick Boettcher](https://github.com/pboettch) implemented `push_back()` and `pop_back()` for JSON Pointers.
163. [Bruno Oliveira](https://github.com/nicoddemus) added support for Conda.
164. [Michele Caini](https://github.com/skypjack) fixed links in the README.
165. [Hani](https://github.com/hnkb) documented how to install the library with NuGet.
166. [Mark Beckwith](https://github.com/wythe) fixed a typo.
167. [yann-morin-1998](https://github.com/yann-morin-1998) helped to reduce the CMake requirement to version 3.1.
168. [Konstantin Podsvirov](https://github.com/podsvirov) maintains a package for the MSYS2 software distro.
169. [remyabel](https://github.com/remyabel) added GNUInstallDirs to the CMake files.
170. [Taylor Howard](https://github.com/taylorhoward92) fixed a unit test.
171. [Gabe Ron](https://github.com/Macr0Nerd) implemented the `to_string` method.
172. [Watal M. Iwasaki](https://github.com/heavywatal) fixed a Clang warning.
173. [Viktor Kirilov](https://github.com/onqtam) switched the unit tests from [Catch](https://github.com/philsquared/Catch) to [doctest](https://github.com/onqtam/doctest)
174. [Juncheng E](https://github.com/ejcjason) fixed a typo.
175. [tete17](https://github.com/tete17) fixed a bug in the `contains` function.
176. [Xav83](https://github.com/Xav83) fixed some cppcheck warnings.
177. [0xflotus](https://github.com/0xflotus) fixed some typos.
178. [Christian Deneke](https://github.com/chris0x44) added a const version of `json_pointer::back`.
179. [Julien Hamaide](https://github.com/crazyjul) made the `items()` function work with custom string types.
180. [Evan Nemerson](https://github.com/nemequ) updated fixed a bug in Hedley and updated this library accordingly.
181. [Florian Pigorsch](https://github.com/flopp) fixed a lot of typos.
182. [Camille Bégué](https://github.com/cbegue) fixed an issue in the conversion from `std::pair` and `std::tuple` to `json`.
183. [Anthony VH](https://github.com/AnthonyVH) fixed a compile error in an enum deserialization.
184. [Yuriy Vountesmery](https://github.com/ua-code-dragon) noted a subtle bug in a preprocessor check.
185. [Chen](https://github.com/dota17) fixed numerous issues in the library.
186. [Antony Kellermann](https://github.com/aokellermann) added a CI step for GCC 10.1.
187. [Alex](https://github.com/gistrec) fixed an MSVC warning.
188. [Rainer](https://github.com/rvjr) proposed an improvement in the floating-point serialization in CBOR.
189. [Francois Chabot](https://github.com/FrancoisChabot) made performance improvements in the input adapters.
190. [Arthur Sonzogni](https://github.com/ArthurSonzogni) documented how the library can be included via `FetchContent`.
191. [Rimas Misevičius](https://github.com/rmisev) fixed an error message.
192. [Alexander Myasnikov](https://github.com/alexandermyasnikov) fixed some examples and a link in the README.
193. [Hubert Chathi](https://github.com/uhoreg) made CMake's version config file architecture-independent.
194. [OmnipotentEntity](https://github.com/OmnipotentEntity) implemented the binary values for CBOR, MessagePack, BSON, and UBJSON.
195. [ArtemSarmini](https://github.com/ArtemSarmini) fixed a compilation issue with GCC 10 and fixed a leak.
196. [Evgenii Sopov](https://github.com/sea-kg) integrated the library to the wsjcpp package manager.
197. [Sergey Linev](https://github.com/linev) fixed a compiler warning.
198. [Miguel Magalhães](https://github.com/magamig) fixed the year in the copyright.
199. [Gareth Sylvester-Bradley](https://github.com/garethsb-sony) fixed a compilation issue with MSVC.
200. [Alexander “weej” Jones](https://github.com/alex-weej) fixed an example in the README.
201. [Antoine Cœur](https://github.com/Coeur) fixed some typos in the documentation.
202. [jothepro](https://github.com/jothepro) updated links to the Hunter package.
211. [Quentin Barbarat](https://github.com/quentin-dev) fixed an example in the documentation.
212. [XyFreak](https://github.com/XyFreak) fixed a compiler warning.
213. [TotalCaesar659](https://github.com/TotalCaesar659) fixed links in the README.
214. [Tanuj Garg](https://github.com/tanuj208) improved the fuzzer coverage for UBSAN input.
215. [AODQ](https://github.com/AODQ) fixed a compiler warning.
216. [jwittbrodt](https://github.com/jwittbrodt) made `NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE` inline.
217. [pfeatherstone](https://github.com/pfeatherstone) improved the upper bound of arguments of the `NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE`/`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE` macros.
218. [Jan Procházka](https://github.com/jprochazk) fixed a bug in the CBOR parser for binary and string values.
219. [T0b1-iOS](https://github.com/T0b1-iOS) fixed a bug in the new hash implementation.
220. [Matthew Bauer](https://github.com/matthewbauer) adjusted the CBOR writer to create tags for binary subtypes.
221. [gatopeich](https://github.com/gatopeich) implemented an ordered map container for `nlohmann::ordered_json`.
222. [Érico Nogueira Rolim](https://github.com/ericonr) added support for pkg-config.
223. [KonanM](https://github.com/KonanM) proposed an implementation for the `NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE`/`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE` macros.
224. [Guillaume Racicot](https://github.com/gracicot) implemented `string_view` support and allowed C++20 support.
225. [Alex Reinking](https://github.com/alexreinking) improved CMake support for `FetchContent`.
226. [Hannes Domani](https://github.com/ssbssa) provided a GDB pretty printer.
227. Lars Wirzenius reviewed the README file.
228. [Jun Jie](https://github.com/ongjunjie) fixed a compiler path in the CMake scripts.
229. [Ronak Buch](https://github.com/rbuch) fixed typos in the documentation.
230. [Alexander Karzhenkov](https://github.com/karzhenkov) fixed a move constructor and the Travis builds.
255. [Arseniy Terekhin](https://github.com/senyai) made the GDB pretty-printer robust against unset variable names.
256. [Amir Masoud Abdol](https://github.com/amirmasoudabdol) updated the Homebrew command as nlohmann/json is now in homebrew-core.
257. [Hallot](https://github.com/Hallot) fixed some `-Wextra-semi-stmt warnings`.
258. [Giovanni Cerretani](https://github.com/gcerretani) fixed `-Wunused` warnings on `JSON_DIAGNOSTICS`.
259. [Bogdan Popescu](https://github.com/Kapeli) hosts the [docset](https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/JSON_for_Modern_C%2B%2B) for offline documentation viewers.
260. [Carl Smedstad](https://github.com/carlsmedstad) fixed an assertion error when using `JSON_DIAGNOSTICS`.
261. [miikka75](https://github.com/miikka75) provided an important fix to compile C++17 code with Clang 9.
262. [Maarten Becker](https://github.com/kernie) fixed a warning for shadowed variables.
263. [Cristi Vîjdea](https://github.com/axnsan12) fixed typos in the `operator[]` documentation.
264. [Alex Beregszaszi](https://github.com/axic) fixed spelling mistakes in comments.
265. [Dirk Stolle](https://github.com/striezel) fixed typos in documentation.
266. [Daniel Albuschat](https://github.com/daniel-kun) corrected the parameter name in the `parse` documentation.
267. [Prince Mendiratta](https://github.com/Prince-Mendiratta) fixed a link to the FAQ.
268. [Florian Albrechtskirchinger](https://github.com/falbrechtskirchinger) implemented `std::string_view` support for object keys and made dozens of other improvements.
269. [Qianqian Fang](https://github.com/fangq) implemented the Binary JData (BJData) format.
270. [pketelsen](https://github.com/pketelsen) added macros `NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT` and `NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT`.
271. [DarkZeros](https://github.com/DarkZeros) adjusted to code to not clash with Arduino defines.
272. [flagarde](https://github.com/flagarde) fixed the output of `meta()` for MSVC.
273. [Giovanni Cerretani](https://github.com/gcerretani) fixed a check for `std::filesystem`.
274. [Dimitris Apostolou](https://github.com/rex4539) fixed a typo.
275. [Ferry Huberts](https://github.com/fhuberts) fixed a typo.
276. [Michael Nosthoff](https://github.com/heinemml) fixed a typo.
277. [JungHoon Lee](https://github.com/jhnlee) fixed a typo.
278. [Faruk D.](https://github.com/fdiblen) fixed the CITATION.CFF file.
279. [Andrea Cocito](https://github.com/puffetto) added a clarification on macro usage to the documentation.
280. [Krzysiek Karbowiak](https://github.com/kkarbowiak) refactored the tests to use `CHECK_THROWS_WITH_AS`.
281. [Chaoqi Zhang](https://github.com/prncoprs) fixed a typo.
282. [ivanovmp](https://github.com/ivanovmp) fixed a whitespace error.
283. [KsaNL](https://github.com/KsaNL) fixed a build error when including `<windows.h>`.
284. [Andrea Pappacoda](https://github.com/Tachi107) moved `.pc` and `.cmake` files to `share` directory.
285. [Wolf Vollprecht](https://github.com/wolfv) added the `patch_inplace` function.
286. [Jake Zimmerman](https://github.com/jez) highlighted common usage patterns in the README file.
287. [NN](https://github.com/NN---) added the Visual Studio output directory to `.gitignore`.
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.
- Only **UTF-8** encoded input is supported, which is the default encoding for JSON according to [RFC 8259](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html#section-8.1).
-`std::u16string` and `std::u32string` can be parsed, assuming UTF-16 and UTF-32 encoding, respectively. These encodings are not supported when reading from files or other input containers.
- Other encodings such as Latin-1 or ISO 8859-1 are **not** supported and will yield parse or serialization errors.
- Invalid surrogates (e.g., incomplete pairs such as `\uDEAD`) will yield parse errors.
- 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.
- When you store strings with different encodings in the library, calling [`dump()`](https://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/dump/) may throw an exception unless `json::error_handler_t::replace` or `json::error_handler_t::ignore` are used as error handlers.
- To store wide strings (e.g., `std::wstring`), you need to convert them to a UTF-8 encoded `std::string` before, see [an example](https://json.nlohmann.me/home/faq/#wide-string-handling).
1. Comments are not part of the [JSON specification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259). You may argue that `//` or `/* */` are allowed in JavaScript, but JSON is not JavaScript.
2. This was not an oversight: Douglas Crockford [wrote on this](https://plus.google.com/118095276221607585885/posts/RK8qyGVaGSr) in May 2012:
> I removed comments from JSON because I saw people were using them to hold parsing directives, a practice which would have destroyed interoperability. I know that the lack of comments makes some people sad, but it shouldn't.
>
> Suppose you are using JSON to keep configuration files, which you would like to annotate. Go ahead and insert all the comments you like. Then pipe it through JSMin before handing it to your JSON parser.
3. It is dangerous for interoperability if some libraries would add comment support while others don't. Please check [The Harmful Consequences of the Robustness Principle](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-iab-protocol-maintenance-01) on this.
However, you can set set parameter `ignore_comments` to true in the `parse` function to ignore `//` or `/* */` comments. Comments will then be treated as whitespace.
### Trailing commas
The JSON specification does not allow trailing commas in arrays and objects, and hence this library is treating them as parsing errors by default.
Like comments, you can set parameter `ignore_trailing_commas` to true in the `parse` function to ignore trailing commas in arrays and objects. Note that a single comma as the only content of the array or object (`[,]` or `{,}`) is not allowed, and multiple trailing commas (`[1,,]`) are not allowed either.
This library does not add trailing commas when serializing JSON data.
For more information, see [JSON With Commas and Comments (JWCC)](https://nigeltao.github.io/blog/2021/json-with-commas-comments.html).
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/rfc8259.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 try the type [`nlohmann::ordered_json`](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/2179). Alternatively, you can use a more sophisticated ordered map 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)).
If you find that a parsing program with this library does not release memory, please consider the following case, and it may be unrelated to this library.
**Your program is compiled with glibc.** There is a tunable threshold that glibc uses to decide whether to actually return memory to the system or whether to cache it for later reuse. If in your program you make lots of small allocations and those small allocations are not a contiguous block and are presumably below the threshold, then they will not get returned to the OS.
- 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://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/operator%5B%5D/) 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://json.nlohmann.me/api/basic_json/at/). Furthermore, you can define `JSON_ASSERT(x)` to replace calls to `assert(x)`. See the [**documentation on runtime assertions**](https://json.nlohmann.me/features/assertions/) for more information.
- As the exact number type is not defined in the [JSON specification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html), 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.
- **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 `abort()` calls. You can further control this behavior by defining `JSON_THROW_USER` (overriding `throw`), `JSON_TRY_USER` (overriding `try`), and `JSON_CATCH_USER` (overriding `catch`). Note that `JSON_THROW_USER` should leave the current scope (e.g., by throwing or aborting), as continuing after it may yield undefined behavior. Note the explanatory [`what()`](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/error/exception/what) string of exceptions is not available for MSVC if exceptions are disabled, see [#2824](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/discussions/2824). See the [**documentation of exceptions**](https://json.nlohmann.me/home/exceptions/) for more information.
Note that during the `ctest` stage, several JSON test files are downloaded from an [external repository](https://github.com/nlohmann/json_test_data). If policies forbid downloading artifacts during testing, you can download the files yourself and pass the directory with the test files via `-DJSON_TestDataDirectory=path` to CMake. Then, no Internet connectivity is required. See [issue #2189](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/2189) for more information.
In case you have downloaded the library rather than checked out the code via Git, test `cmake_fetch_content_configure` will fail. Please execute `ctest -LE git_required` to skip these tests. See [issue #2189](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/2189) for more information.
Some tests change the installed files and hence make the whole process not reproducible. Please execute `ctest -LE not_reproducible` to skip these tests. See [issue #2324](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/2324) for more information. Furthermore, assertions must be switched off to ensure reproducible builds (see [discussion 4494](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/discussions/4494)).
Note you need to call `cmake -LE "not_reproducible|git_required"` to exclude both labels. See [issue #2596](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/2596) for more information.
As Intel compilers use unsafe floating point optimization by default, the unit tests may fail. Use flag [`/fp:precise`](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/cpp-compiler/developer-guide-reference/2021-8/fp-model-fp.html) then.
