JSON, the complete guide

Many of us use the JSON format to exchange data between any number of different systems. We do complex operations and I think we appreciate the power and simplicity without pausing to truly understand how it works.

JSON has 6 types. The first four are simple value types of string, number, boolean, and null. The other 2 types are array and object.

Any of the six types can be at the root level of a document. If the root level value is a simple type, then there's no room for anything additional, so the following documents tend to have little use and are not common.

123        

"Spock On A Dock"        

null        

true        

Arrays and objects as root level values open up the great possibilities that the format offers.

[false,1,"two",null]        

{
  "name": "Barbara Oppenheimer"
}        

and it grows from there to handle large amounts of data and complex structures, all by combining those six basic types.

{
  "name": "George",
  "tall": true,
  "eyes": 2,
  "cars": ["Ford Truck", "Lamborghini"],
  "spouse": null
}