JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

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Introduction

**JSON **(JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data exchange format based on a subset of the JavaScript language and is widely used for data transmission and storage. JSON uses key-value pairs to represent data, using a simple, easy-to-read text format that is also easy to parse and generate, making it a universal data exchange format.

Data Format Overview

Object: The object structure starts with “{“ curly braces and ends with “}” curly braces. The middle part consists of 0 or more “key (keyword) / value (value)” pairs separated by “,” and the keywords and values are separated by “:”. The keywords are strings, and the values can be strings, numbers (integers or floating point numbers), Boolean values (true or false), arrays, objects (i.e. nested key-value pairs) and null.

**Array: **The array structure starts with “[“ brackets and ends with “]” brackets. An array is an ordered collection of values separated by commas. An array can contain multiple objects or other data types.

Pros

1. Easy to read and write: JSON represents data in the form of key-value pairs, which is very intuitive and easy for humans to read and understand. At the same time, its syntax is relatively simple, making it very easy to write and modify JSON data.

2. Lightweight: Compared with other data formats, JSON has a smaller data volume because it does not use additional tags to describe the data structure. This makes JSON more efficient in data transmission and storage.

3. Cross-platform compatibility: JSON is a language-independent text format, so it can seamlessly exchange data between different operating systems and programming languages. This makes JSON a very popular data exchange format.

Cons

1. Does not support complex geometric structures: GeoJSON is mainly suitable for simple geometric data, and complex geometric data may exceed its design capabilities.

2. Large data volume: Compared with binary formats (such as Shapefile, TopoJSON), GeoJSON files are larger and have higher transmission and storage costs.

3. Insufficient precision: Since the WGS84 coordinate system (default coordinate system) is used, there may be insufficient precision for high-precision geographic applications.

4. Lack of topological support: Compared with TopoJSON, GeoJSON does not have topological relationship information and cannot perform topological optimization.

Application Scenario

JSON is the most common application scenario for data exchange between the front-end and back-end. It is a common data format in Web APIs because it is very convenient to parse JSON in JavaScript and is also easy to process in other programming languages. Due to JSON’s readability, it is also often used for logging and tracking the running status of applications.