a: 1, b: 2

Forgiving Features

zzson is a forgiving JSON parser, handling common deviations from strict JSON (RFC 8259). Below are the supported forgiving features:

Comments

  • Single-line: // ... and # ...
  • Multi-line: /* ... */

Comments are ignored anywhere whitespace is allowed.

Example:

{
  // This is a single-line comment
  age: 30, # Another single-line comment
  /* Multi-line
     comment */
  name: "Alice"
}

Unquoted Keys

Object keys can be unquoted if they are valid identifiers.

{ name: "zzson", version: 1.0 }

Trailing Commas

Trailing commas are allowed in arrays and objects.

{
  a: 1,
  b: 2,
}

Implicit Top-Level Objects and Arrays

You can omit brackets for top-level arrays or objects:

apple, banana, cherry
# Interpreted as ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]


# Interpreted as {"a": 1, "b": 2}

Newlines as Comma Separators

When enabled, newlines can act as value separators, like commas, in arrays and objects.

[
  1
  2
  3
]

{
  key1: "value1"
  key2: "value2"
}

Extended Number Formats

  • Hexadecimal: 0xFF
  • Octal: 0o77
  • Binary: 0b1010
  • Underscores: 1_000_000

Single-Quoted Strings

Both single and double quotes are supported for strings.

{ key: 'value', other: "also ok" }

Strict Mode

All forgiving features can be disabled for strict RFC 8259 compliance.

These forgiving features make zzson a flexible parser for configurations, data files, and other scenarios where strict JSON adherence might be relaxed.