JSON stands for “JavaScript Object Notation”. It is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write, and easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is often used for transmitting data between a server and a web application, as an alternative to XML.
In a JSON document, data is represented using key-value pairs, similar to a dictionary in Python or an object in JavaScript. The keys are strings, and the values can be any valid JSON data type, including strings, numbers, objects, arrays, and boolean values. For example, here’s a JSON document that represents information about a book:
jsonCopy code{
"title": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone",
"author": "J.K. Rowling",
"publisher": "Bloomsbury",
"published_year": 1997,
"isbn": "978-0747532743"
}
In this example, the keys are “title”, “author”, “publisher”, “published_year”, and “isbn”, and the corresponding values are strings and a number. Note that unlike XML, JSON does not require a specific document type declaration at the beginning of the document.