NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_ONLY_SERIALIZE, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_ONLY_SERIALIZE

#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE(type, base_type, member...)                    // (1)
#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT(type, base_type, member...)       // (2)
#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_ONLY_SERIALIZE(type, base_type, member...)     // (3)

#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE(type, base_type, member...)                // (4)
#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT(type, base_type, member...)   // (5)
#define NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_ONLY_SERIALIZE(type, base_type, member...) // (6)

These macros can be used to simplify the serialization/deserialization of derived types if you want to use a JSON object as serialization and want to use the member variable names as object keys in that object.

• Macros 1, 2 and 3 are to be defined inside the class/struct to create code for. Like NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE, they can access private members.
• Macros 4, 5 and 6 are to be defined outside the class/struct to create code for, but inside its namespace. Like NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE, they cannot access private members.

The first parameter is the name of the derived class/struct, the second parameter is the name of the base class/struct and all remaining parameters name the members. The base type must be already serializable/deserializable.

• Macros 1 and 3 will use at during deserialization and will throw out_of_range.403 if a key is missing in the JSON object.
• Macros 2 and 4 will use value during deserialization and fall back to the default value for the respective type of the member variable if a key in the JSON object is missing. The generated from_json() function default constructs an object and uses its values as the defaults when calling the value function.

Parameters¶

type (in)

name of the type (class, struct) to serialize/deserialize

base_type (in)

name of the base type (class, struct) type is derived from

member (in)

name of the member variable to serialize/deserialize; up to 64 members can be given as comma-separated list

Default definition¶

Macros 1 and 2 add two friend functions to the class which take care of the serialization and deserialization:

friend void to_json(nlohmann::json&, const type&);
friend void from_json(const nlohmann::json&, type&);

Macros 4 and 5 add two functions to the namespace which take care of the serialization and deserialization:

void to_json(nlohmann::json&, const type&);
void from_json(const nlohmann::json&, type&);

Macros 3 and 6 add one function to the namespace which take care of the serialization only:

void to_json(nlohmann::json&, const type&);

In first two cases cases they call the to_json/from_json functions of the base type before serializing/deserializing the members of the derived type:

class A { /* ... */ };
class B : public A { /* ... */ };

void to_json(nlohmann::json& j, const B& b) {
    nlohmann::to_json(j, static_cast<const A&>(b));
    // ...
}

void from_json(const nlohmann::json& j, B& b) {
    nlohmann::from_json(j, static_cast<A&>(b));
    // ...
}

In the third case only to_json will be called:

class A { /* ... */ };
class B : public A { /* ... */ };

void to_json(nlohmann::json& j, const B& b) {
    nlohmann::to_json(j, static_cast<const A&>(b));
    // ...
}

Notes¶

Examples¶

Example of NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE usage:

class A {
  double Aa;
  double Ab;
  NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE(A, Aa, Ab)
};

class B : public A {
  int Ba;
  int Bb;
  NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_INTRUSIVE(B, A, Ba, Bb)
};

See also¶

• NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE / NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT for similar macros that can be defined inside a non-derived type.
• NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE / NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT for similar macros that can be defined outside a non-derived type.
• Arbitrary Type Conversions for an overview.

Version history¶

1. Added in version 3.11.x.