JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

JSON is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. It is the dominant format for web APIs, configuration files, and data storage in modern applications.

MIME Type

application/json

Type

Text

Compression

Lossless

Advantages

+ Human-readable and writable with minimal syntax
+ Native parsing in every programming language
+ Dominant format for REST APIs and web services
+ Lightweight — less verbose than XML

Disadvantages

− No comment syntax — cannot annotate configuration files
− No native date, binary, or schema types
− Trailing commas cause parse errors in strict parsers

When to Use .JSON

Use JSON for API responses, configuration files, data exchange between services, and any structured data that needs to be human-readable.

Technical Details

JSON supports six data types: strings, numbers, booleans, null, arrays, and objects (key-value maps). It uses UTF-8 encoding and has no support for comments, dates, or binary data natively.

History

Douglas Crockford popularized JSON in the early 2000s, deriving it from JavaScript object literal syntax. It was standardized as ECMA-404 in 2013 and RFC 8259 in 2017, becoming the universal API data format.

Convert from .JSON

.json → .arrow .json → .avro .json → .bson .json → .c .json → .cpp .json → .css .json → .csv .json → .geojson .json → .go .json → .gpx .json → .hdf5 .json → .html .json → .ics .json → .java .json → .js .json → .jsx .json → .kml .json → .md .json → .msgpack .json → .ndjson .json → .ods .json → .parquet .json → .protobuf .json → .py .json → .rs .json → .sql .json → .sqlite .json → .toml .json → .ts .json → .tsv .json → .tsx .json → .vcf .json → .xlsx .json → .xml .json → .yaml .json → .yml

Convert to .JSON

.arrow → .json .avro → .json .bson → .json .c → .json .cpp → .json .css → .json .csv → .json .geojson → .json .go → .json .gpx → .json .hdf5 → .json .html → .json .ics → .json .java → .json .js → .json .jsx → .json .kml → .json .md → .json .msgpack → .json .ndjson → .json .ods → .json .parquet → .json .protobuf → .json .py → .json .rs → .json .sql → .json .sqlite → .json .toml → .json .ts → .json .tsv → .json .tsx → .json .vcf → .json .xlsx → .json .xml → .json .yaml → .json .yml → .json

Related Formats

.c .cpp .css .csv .go .java .js .jsx .less .py .rs .scss .sql .toml .ts .tsv .tsx .xml .yaml .yml

Related Terms

HAR JQ JSON JSON-LD JSON Lines JSON Patch JSON Schema MessagePack Protocol Buffers Web Manifest

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Use Cases

T Converting Legacy Data Formats for System Migration T Formatting JSON API Responses for Debug Analysis