This code was written by Jim McCann (ix), and is released under the MIT license. The latest version of this code is available at https://github.com/ixchow/sejp.

Somewhat Eager JSON Parser

SEJP is a Somewhat Eager JSON Parser for C++ -- it reads JSON file from a stream and makes it into dynamically-typed values as it does so. It is a small and reasonably lightweight piece of code (easy to audit and integrate!).

However, it does parse and hold the entire file in memory; so is not particularly suited to streaming access of very large files.

Usage

Usage example:

#include "sejp.hpp"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  std::string json =
    "{\n"
    " \"version\":15,\n"
    " \"places\":[\n"
    "   \"Pittsburgh, PA\","
    "   \"Salt Lake City, UT\""
    " ],\n"
    " \"extra\":{\n"
    "   \"optimized\":false,\n"
    "   \"debug\":true\n"
    " },\n"
    " \"more\":null\n"
    "}\n"
  ;
  sejp::value val = sejp::parse(json);

  { //simple example -- if you know what you are accessing:
    //if you are sure: (will throw if key is missing)
    double version = val.as_object().value().at("version").as_number().value();
    std::cout << "Version is " << version << "." << std::endl;
  }

  //if you try to get the value of something at the wrong type, an exception is thrown:
  try {
    //NOTE: this will fail!
    double inversion = val.as_object().value().at("inversion").as_number().value();
    std::cout << "ERROR -- got " << inversion << " instead of failing." << std::endl;
  } catch (std::exception &e) {
    std::cout << "SUCCESS -- key \"inversion\" doesn't exist. (Reported as: " << e.what() << ".)" << std::endl;
  }

  // a more complete example:

  //you can do this because the returned optionals are valid as long as some value from the parse is held:
  std::map< std::string, sejp::value > const &object = val.as_object().value();
  double version = object.at("version").as_number().value();
  std::cout << "Version is " << version << std::endl;

  //if a "places" key exists...
  if (auto places = object.find("places"); places != object.end()) {
    //...coerce to an array (will throw if not) and iterate:
    for (auto const &place : places->second.as_array().value()) {
      std::cout << "  Place: " << place.as_string().value() << std::endl;
    }
  }

}

Values keep a shared_ptr to the parsed data, and return references into these arrays. This means that one can safely hold references to (e.g.) value.as_array().value() as long as value remains alive.

Installation

Copy sejp.hpp and sejp.cpp into your project.

Make sure to build with (at least) c++17 support, since this code uses std::optional< >.