--[[ json.lua A compact pure-Lua JSON library. This code is in the public domain: https://gist.github.com/tylerneylon/59f4bcf316be525b30ab The main functions are: json.stringify, json.parse. ## json.stringify: This expects the following to be true of any tables being encoded: * They only have string or number keys. Number keys must be represented as strings in json; this is part of the json spec. * They are not recursive. Such a structure cannot be specified in json. A Lua table is considered to be an array if and only if its set of keys is a consecutive sequence of positive integers starting at 1. Arrays are encoded like so: `[2, 3, false, "hi"]`. Any other type of Lua table is encoded as a json object, encoded like so: `{"key1": 2, "key2": false}`. Because the Lua nil value cannot be a key, and as a table value is considered equivalent to a missing key, there is no way to express the json "null" value in a Lua table. The only way this will output "null" is if your entire input obj is nil itself. An empty Lua table, {}, could be considered either a json object or array - it's an ambiguous edge case. We choose to treat this as an object as it is the more general type. To be clear, none of the above considerations is a limitation of this code. Rather, it is what we get when we completely observe the json specification for as arbitrary a Lua object as json is capable of expressing. ## json.parse: This function parses json, with the exception that it does not pay attention to \u-escaped unicode code points in strings. It is difficult for Lua to return null as a value. In order to prevent the loss of keys with a null value in a json string, this function uses the one-off table value json.null (which is just an empty table) to indicate null values. This way you can check if a value is null with the conditional `val == json.null`. If you have control over the data and are using Lua, I would recommend just avoiding null values in your data to begin with. --]] local json = {} -- Internal functions. local function kind_of(obj) if type(obj) ~= 'table' then return type(obj) end local i = 1 for _ in pairs(obj) do if obj[i] ~= nil then i = i + 1 else return 'table' end end if i == 1 then return 'table' else return 'array' end end local function escape_str(s) local in_char = {'\\', '"', '/', '\b', '\f', '\n', '\r', '\t'} local out_char = {'\\', '"', '/', 'b', 'f', 'n', 'r', 't'} for i, c in ipairs(in_char) do s = s:gsub(c, '\\' .. out_char[i]) end return s end -- Returns pos, did_find; there are two cases: -- 1. Delimiter found: pos = pos after leading space + delim; did_find = true. -- 2. Delimiter not found: pos = pos after leading space; did_find = false. -- This throws an error if err_if_missing is true and the delim is not found. local function skip_delim(str, pos, delim, err_if_missing) pos = pos + #str:match('^%s*', pos) if str:sub(pos, pos) ~= delim then if err_if_missing then error('Expected ' .. delim .. ' near position ' .. pos) end return pos, false end return pos + 1, true end -- Expects the given pos to be the first character after the opening quote. -- Returns val, pos; the returned pos is after the closing quote character. local function parse_str_val(str, pos, val) val = val or '' local early_end_error = 'End of input found while parsing string.' if pos > #str then error(early_end_error) end local c = str:sub(pos, pos) if c == '"' then return val, pos + 1 end if c ~= '\\' then return parse_str_val(str, pos + 1, val .. c) end -- We must have a \ character. local esc_map = {b = '\b', f = '\f', n = '\n', r = '\r', t = '\t'} local nextc = str:sub(pos + 1, pos + 1) if not nextc then error(early_end_error) end return parse_str_val(str, pos + 2, val .. (esc_map[nextc] or nextc)) end -- Returns val, pos; the returned pos is after the number's final character. local function parse_num_val(str, pos) local num_str = str:match('^-?%d+%.?%d*[eE]?[+-]?%d*', pos) local val = tonumber(num_str) if not val then error('Error parsing number at position ' .. pos .. '.') end return val, pos + #num_str end -- Public values and functions. function json.stringify(obj, as_key) local s = {} -- We'll build the string as an array of strings to be concatenated. local kind = kind_of(obj) -- This is 'array' if it's an array or type(obj) otherwise. if kind == 'array' then if as_key then error('Can\'t encode array as key.') end s[#s + 1] = '[' for i, val in ipairs(obj) do if i > 1 then s[#s + 1] = ', ' end s[#s + 1] = json.stringify(val) end s[#s + 1] = ']' elseif kind == 'table' then if as_key then error('Can\'t encode table as key.') end s[#s + 1] = '{' for k, v in pairs(obj) do if #s > 1 then s[#s + 1] = ', ' end s[#s + 1] = json.stringify(k, true) s[#s + 1] = ':' s[#s + 1] = json.stringify(v) end s[#s + 1] = '}' elseif kind == 'string' then return '"' .. escape_str(obj) .. '"' elseif kind == 'number' then if as_key then return '"' .. tostring(obj) .. '"' end return tostring(obj) elseif kind == 'boolean' then return tostring(obj) elseif kind == 'nil' then return 'null' else error('Unjsonifiable type: ' .. kind .. '.') end return table.concat(s) end json.null = {} -- This is a one-off table to represent the null value. function json.parse(str, pos, end_delim) pos = pos or 1 if pos > #str then error('Reached unexpected end of input.') end local pos = pos + #str:match('^%s*', pos) -- Skip whitespace. local first = str:sub(pos, pos) if first == '{' then -- Parse an object. local obj, key, delim_found = {}, true, true pos = pos + 1 while true do key, pos = json.parse(str, pos, '}') if key == nil then return obj, pos end if not delim_found then error('Comma missing between object items.') end pos = skip_delim(str, pos, ':', true) -- true -> error if missing. obj[key], pos = json.parse(str, pos) pos, delim_found = skip_delim(str, pos, ',') end elseif first == '[' then -- Parse an array. local arr, val, delim_found = {}, true, true pos = pos + 1 while true do val, pos = json.parse(str, pos, ']') if val == nil then return arr, pos end if not delim_found then error('Comma missing between array items.') end arr[#arr + 1] = val pos, delim_found = skip_delim(str, pos, ',') end elseif first == '"' then -- Parse a string. return parse_str_val(str, pos + 1) elseif first == '-' or first:match('%d') then -- Parse a number. return parse_num_val(str, pos) elseif first == end_delim then -- End of an object or array. return nil, pos + 1 else -- Parse true, false, or null. local literals = {['true'] = true, ['false'] = false, ['null'] = json.null} for lit_str, lit_val in pairs(literals) do local lit_end = pos + #lit_str - 1 if str:sub(pos, lit_end) == lit_str then return lit_val, lit_end + 1 end end local pos_info_str = 'position ' .. pos .. ': ' .. str:sub(pos, pos + 10) error('Invalid json syntax starting at ' .. pos_info_str) end end return json