JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a standard text-based format for representing structured data based on [[JavaScript]] object syntax. It is commonly used for transmitting data in web applications (e.g., sending some data from the server to the client, so it can be displayed on a web page, or vice versa).

JSON is a text-based data format following JavaScript object syntax. Even though it closely resembles JavaScript object literal syntax, it can be used independently from JavaScript, and many programming environments feature the ability to read (parse) and generate JSON.

JSON exists as a string — useful when you want to transmit data across a network. It needs to be converted to a native JavaScript object when you want to access the data. This is not a big issue — JavaScript provides a global JSON object that has methods available for converting between the two.

You can include the same basic data types inside JSON as you can in a standard JavaScript object — strings, numbers, arrays, booleans, and other object literals. This allows you to construct a data hierarchy, like so:

{
  "squadName": "Super hero squad",
  "homeTown": "Metro City",
  "formed": 2016,
  "secretBase": "Super tower",
  "active": true,
  "members": [
    {
      "name": "Molecule Man",
      "age": 29,
      "secretIdentity": "Dan Jukes",
      "powers": ["Radiation resistance", "Turning tiny", "Radiation blast"]
    },
    {
      "name": "Madame Uppercut",
      "age": 39,
      "secretIdentity": "Jane Wilson",
      "powers": [
        "Million tonne punch",
        "Damage resistance",
        "Superhuman reflexes"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Eternal Flame",
      "age": 1000000,
      "secretIdentity": "Unknown",
      "powers": [
        "Immortality",
        "Heat Immunity",
        "Inferno",
        "Teleportation",
        "Interdimensional travel"
      ]
    }
  ]
}