rhai/doc/src/language/json.md

Parse an Object Map from JSON

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The syntax for an [object map] is extremely similar to JSON, with the exception of null values which can technically be mapped to [()]. A valid JSON string does not start with a hash character # while a Rhai [object map] does - that's the major difference!

Use the Engine::parse_json method to parse a piece of JSON into an object map:

// JSON string - notice that JSON property names are always quoted
//               notice also that comments are acceptable within the JSON string
let json = r#"{
                "a": 1,                 // <- this is an integer number
                "b": true,
                "c": 123.0,             // <- this is a floating-point number
                "$d e f!": "hello",     // <- any text can be a property name
                "^^^!!!": [1,42,"999"], // <- value can be array or another hash
                "z": null               // <- JSON 'null' value
              }
"#;

// Parse the JSON expression as an object map
// Set the second boolean parameter to true in order to map 'null' to '()'
let map = engine.parse_json(json, true)?;

map.len() == 6;                         // 'map' contains all properties in the JSON string

// Put the object map into a 'Scope'
let mut scope = Scope::new();
scope.push("map", map);

let result = engine.eval_with_scope::<INT>(r#"map["^^^!!!"].len()"#)?;

result == 3;                            // the object map is successfully used in the script

Representation of Numbers

JSON numbers are all floating-point while Rhai supports integers (INT) and floating-point (FLOAT) if the [no_float] feature is not used. Most common generators of JSON data distinguish between integer and floating-point values by always serializing a floating-point number with a decimal point (i.e. 123.0 instead of 123 which is assumed to be an integer). This style can be used successfully with Rhai [object maps].