jsonpointer.md

jsonpointer extension

JSON Pointer defines a string syntax to locate a specific value in a JSON document. A JSON Pointer is a string of zero or more tokens, each token prefixed by / characters. These tokens denote keys in JSON objects or indexes in JSON arrays. An empty string with zero tokens points to the root of a json document.

The characters ~ and / have special meanings in JSON Pointer, so if a key in a JSON object has these characters, ~ needs to be escaped as ~0, and / needs to be escaped as ~1.

When applied to a JSON array, the character - indicates one past the last element in the array.

Classes

basic_json_pointer

Objects of type basic_json_pointer represent a JSON Pointer.

Functions

contains	Returns true if the json document contains the given JSON Pointer
get	Get a value from a JSON document using JSON Pointer path notation.
add	Inserts a value in a JSON document using JSON Pointer path notation, or if the path specifies an object member that already has the same key, assigns the new value to that member.
insert (until 0.162.0)	Same as add_if_absent
add_if_absent (since 0.162.0))	Inserts a value in a JSON document using JSON Pointer path notation, if the path doesn't specify an object member that already has the same key.
remove	Removes a value from a JSON document using JSON Pointer path notation.
replace	Replaces a value in a JSON document using JSON Pointer path notation.
flatten unflatten	Flattens a json object or array into a single depth object of JSON Pointer-value pairs.

Examples

Select author from second book

#include <jsoncons/json.hpp>
#include <jsoncons_ext/jsonpointer/jsonpointer.hpp>

// for brevity
using jsoncons::json; 
namespace jsonpointer = jsoncons::jsonpointer;

int main()
{
    auto j = json::parse(R"(
    [
      { "category": "reference",
        "author": "Nigel Rees",
        "title": "Sayings of the Century",
        "price": 8.95
      },
      { "category": "fiction",
        "author": "Evelyn Waugh",
        "title": "Sword of Honour",
        "price": 12.99
      }
    ]
    )");

    // Using exceptions to report errors
    try
    {
        json result = jsonpointer::get(j, "/1/author");
        std::cout << "(1) " << result << std::endl;
    }
    catch (const jsonpointer::jsonpointer_error& e)
    {
        std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
    }

    // Using error codes to report errors
    std::error_code ec;
    const json& result = jsonpointer::get(j, "/0/title", ec);

    if (ec)
    {
        std::cout << ec.message() << std::endl;
    }
    else
    {
        std::cout << "(2) " << result << std::endl;
    }
}

Output:

(1) "Evelyn Waugh"
(2) "Sayings of the Century"

Using jsonpointer::json_pointer with jsonpointer::get

#include <jsoncons/json.hpp>
#include <jsoncons_ext/jsonpointer/jsonpointer.hpp>

using jsoncons::json; 
namespace jsonpointer = jsoncons::jsonpointer;

int main()
{
    auto j = json::parse(R"(
       {
          "a/b": ["bar", "baz"],
          "m~n": ["foo", "qux"]
       }
    )");

    jsonpointer::json_pointer ptr; // (since 0.159.0)
    // jsonpointer::json_ptr ptr; // (until 0.159.0)

    ptr /= "m~n";
    ptr /= 1; // (since 0.159.0)
    //ptr /= "1"; // (until 0.159.0)

    std::cout << "(1) " << ptr << "\n\n";

    std::cout << "(2)\n";
    for (const auto& item : ptr)
    {
        std::cout << item << "\n";
    }
    std::cout << "\n";

    json item = jsonpointer::get(j, ptr);
    std::cout << "(3) " << item << "\n";
}

Output:

(1) /m~0n/1

(2)
m~n
1

(3) "qux"

Add a value to a location after creating objects when missing object keys (since 0.162.0)

#include <iostream>
#include <jsoncons/json.hpp>
#include <jsoncons_ext/jsonpointer/jsonpointer.hpp>

using jsoncons::json;
namespace jsonpointer = jsoncons::jsonpointer;

int main()
{
    std::vector<std::string> keys = {"foo","bar","baz"};

    jsonpointer::json_pointer location;
    for (const auto& key : keys)
    {
        location /= key;
    }

    json doc;
    jsonpointer::add(doc, location, "str", true);

    std::cout << pretty_print(doc) << "\n\n";
}

Output:

{
    "foo": {
        "bar": {
            "baz": "str"
        }
    }
}