INTERFACER Glossary

JavaScript Object Notation

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. JSON is a lightweight format for storing and transporting data. JSON is often used when data is sent from a server to a web page.

JavaScript Object Notation is an open standard file format, and data interchange format, that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and array data types.

Since the JSON format is text only, it can easily be sent to and from a server, and used as a data format by any programming language (i.e. JSON is language independent). JSON is “self-describing” and easy to understand.

Example

The following example shows a possible JSON representation describing a person.

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "isAlive": true,
  "age": 27,
  "address": {
    "streetAddress": "21 2nd Street",
    "city": "New York",
    "state": "NY",
    "postalCode": "10021-3100"
  },
  "phoneNumbers": [
    {
      "type": "home",
      "number": "212 555-1234"
    },
    {
      "type": "office",
      "number": "646 555-4567"
   }
    ],
   "children": [],
   "spouse": null
}

Further Reading

Synonyms

Abbreviation