Software Development

What is JSON?

Quick answer

JavaScript Object Notation: a lightweight, text-based format for storing and exchanging structured data.

JSON, explained

JSON represents data as key-value pairs and ordered lists using a simple, human-readable syntax. Keys are quoted strings, and values can be strings, numbers, booleans, null, arrays in square brackets, or nested objects in curly braces.

Although it originated from JavaScript, JSON is language-independent, and almost every programming language can read and write it. It has become the default format for web APIs, configuration files, and many NoSQL databases. For example, this glossary itself could be stored as a JSON array of term objects, each with fields for the term, a short definition, and related entries. JSON does not support comments, which is one reason some configuration tools prefer YAML instead.

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