JSON(JavaScript Object Notation) 是一种轻量级的数据交换格式。易于人阅读和编写。同时也易于机器解析和生成。它基于JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999的一个子集。JSON采用完全独立于语言的文本格式，但是也使用了类似于C语言家族的习惯（包括C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python等）。这些特性使JSON成为理想的数据交换语言。

JSON建构于两种结构：

• “名称/值”对的集合（A collection of name/value pairs）。不同的语言中，它被理解为对象（object），纪录（record），结构（struct），字典（dictionary），哈希表（hash table），有键列表（keyed list），或者关联数组 （associative array）。
• 值的有序列表（An ordered list of values）。在大部分语言中，它被理解为数组（array）。

这些都是常见的数据结构。事实上大部分现代计算机语言都以某种形式支持它们。这使得一种数据格式在同样基于这些结构的编程语言之间交换成为可能。

JSON具有以下这些形式：

• 对象是一个无序的“‘名称/值’对”集合。一个对象以“{”（左括号）开始，“}”（右括号）结束。每个“名称”后跟一个“:”（冒号）；“‘名称/值’ 对”之间使用“,”（逗号）分隔。
• 数组是值（value）的有序集合。一个数组以“[”（左中括号）开始，“]”（右中括号）结束。值之间使用“,”（逗号）分隔。
• 值（value）可以是双引号括起来的字符串（string）、数值(number)、 ture、false、 null、对象（object）或者数组（array）。这些结构可以嵌套。
• 字符串（string）是由双引号包围的任意数量Unicode字符的集合，使用反斜线转义。一个字符（character）即一个单独的字符串（character string）。

JavaScript is a general purpose programming language that was introduced as the page scripting language for Netscape Navigator. It is widely believed to be a subset of Java, but it is not. It is a Scheme-like language with C-like syntax and soft objects. JavaScript was standardized in the ECMAScript Language Specification, Third Edition.

JSON is a subset of the object literal notation of JavaScript. Since JSON is a subset of JavaScript, it can be used in the language with no muss or fuss.

var myJSONObject = {"bindings": [
        {"ircEvent": "PRIVMSG", "method": "newURI", "regex": "^http://.*"},
        {"ircEvent": "PRIVMSG", "method": "deleteURI", "regex": "^delete.*"},
        {"ircEvent": "PRIVMSG", "method": "randomURI", "regex": "^random.*"}
    ]
};

In this example, an object is created containing a single member "bindings", which contains an array containing three objects, each containing "ircEvent", "method", and "regex" members.

Members can be retrieved using dot or subscript operators.

myJSONObject.bindings[0].method    // "newURI"

To convert a JSON text into an object, use the eval() function. eval() invokes the JavaScript compiler. Since JSON is a proper subset of JavaScript, the compiler will correctly parse the text and produce an object structure.

var myObject = eval('(' + myJSONtext + ')');

The eval function is very fast. However, it can compile and execute any JavaScript program, so there can be security issues. The use of eval is indicated when the source is trusted. This is commonly the case in web applications when a web server is providing both the base page and the JSON data. There are cases where the source is not trusted. In particular, clients should never be trusted.

When security is a concern it is better to use a JSON parser. A JSON parser will only recognize JSON text and so is much safer:

var myObject = myJSONtext.parseJSON();

A JSON stringifier goes in the opposite direction, converting JavaScript data structures into JSON text. JSON does not support cyclic data structures, so be careful to not give cyclical structures to the JSON stringifier.

var myJSONText = myObject.toJSONString();

Demo:使用XML表示：

 
 
 

 

使用JSON：
{comments:[
 {
  id:1,
  author:"someone1",
  url:"http://someone1.x2design.net",
  content:"hello"
 },
 {
  id:2,
  author:"someone2",
  url:"http://someone2.x2design.net",
  content:"hello"
 },
 {
  id:3,
  author:"someone3",
  url:"http://someone3.x2design.net",
  content:"hello"
 }
]};