json.decode()

Type Function
Library json.*
Return value Table
Revision Release 2024.3703
Keywords json
See also json.encode()
json.decodeFile()

Overview

Decodes the JSON-encoded data structure and returns a Lua object (table) with the data. The return value is a Lua object when the data is successfully decoded or, in the case of an error, three values: nil, the position of the next character that doesn't belong to the object, and an error message.

Syntax

json.decode( data [, position [, nullval]] )
data (required)

String. String containing JSON data.

position (optional)

Number. Index within data to start decoding (default is 1 if omitted).

nullval (optional)

Value to be returned for items with a value of json.null (see json.encode()). This is useful if your data contains items which are "null" but you need to know of their existence (in Lua, table items with values of nil don't normally exist).

Examples

local json = require( "json" )

local t = {
    ["name1"] = "value1",
    ["name2"] = { 1, false, true, 23.54, "a \021 string" },
    name3 = json.null
}

local encoded = json.encode( t )
print( encoded )
--> {"name1":"value1","name3":null,"name2":[1,false,true,23.54,"a \u0015 string"]}

local encoded = json.encode( t, { indent = true } )
print( encoded )
--> {
--> "name1":"value1",
--> "name3":null,
--> "name2":[1,false,true,23.54,"a \u0015 string"]
--> }

-- Since this was just encoded using the same library, it's unlikely to fail, but it's good practice to handle errors anyway
local decoded, pos, msg = json.decode( encoded )
if not decoded then
    print( "Decode failed at "..tostring(pos)..": "..tostring(msg) )
else
    print( decoded.name2[4] )  --> 23.54
end