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basic_json::object_t

using object_t = ObjectType<StringType,
                            basic_json,
                            object_comparator_t,
                            AllocatorType<std::pair<const StringType, basic_json>>>;

The type used to store JSON objects.

RFC 7159 describes JSON objects as follows:

An object is an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs, where a name is a string and a value is a string, number, boolean, null, object, or array.

To store objects in C++, a type is defined by the template parameters described below.

Template parameters

ObjectType
the container to store objects (e.g., std::map or std::unordered_map)
StringType
the type of the keys or names (e.g., std::string). The comparison function std::less<StringType> is used to order elements inside the container.
AllocatorType
the allocator to use for objects (e.g., std::allocator)

Notes

Default type

With the default values for ObjectType (std::map), StringType (std::string), and AllocatorType (std::allocator), the default value for object_t is:

// until C++14
std::map<
  std::string, // key_type
  basic_json, // value_type
  std::less<std::string>, // key_compare
  std::allocator<std::pair<const std::string, basic_json>> // allocator_type
>

// since C++14
std::map<
  std::string, // key_type
  basic_json, // value_type
  std::less<>, // key_compare
  std::allocator<std::pair<const std::string, basic_json>> // allocator_type
>

See object_comparator_t for more information.

Behavior

The choice of object_t influences the behavior of the JSON class. With the default type, objects have the following behavior:

  • When all names are unique, objects will be interoperable in the sense that all software implementations receiving that object will agree on the name-value mappings.
  • When the names within an object are not unique, it is unspecified which one of the values for a given key will be chosen. For instance, {"key": 2, "key": 1} could be equal to either {"key": 1} or {"key": 2}.
  • Internally, name/value pairs are stored in lexicographical order of the names. Objects will also be serialized (see dump) in this order. For instance, {"b": 1, "a": 2} and {"a": 2, "b": 1} will be stored and serialized as {"a": 2, "b": 1}.
  • When comparing objects, the order of the name/value pairs is irrelevant. This makes objects interoperable in the sense that they will not be affected by these differences. For instance, {"b": 1, "a": 2} and {"a": 2, "b": 1} will be treated as equal.

Limits

RFC 7159 specifies:

An implementation may set limits on the maximum depth of nesting.

In this class, the object's limit of nesting is not explicitly constrained. However, a maximum depth of nesting may be introduced by the compiler or runtime environment. A theoretical limit can be queried by calling the max_size function of a JSON object.

Storage

Objects are stored as pointers in a basic_json type. That is, for any access to object values, a pointer of type object_t* must be dereferenced.

Object key order

The order name/value pairs are added to the object is not preserved by the library. Therefore, iterating an object may return name/value pairs in a different order than they were originally stored. In fact, keys will be traversed in alphabetical order as std::map with std::less is used by default. Please note this behavior conforms to RFC 7159, because any order implements the specified "unordered" nature of JSON objects.

Version history

  • Added in version 1.0.0.