https://github.com/getify/JSON.minify

Simple minifier for JSON to remove comments and whitespace
https://github.com/getify/JSON.minify

Last synced: 7 days ago
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Simple minifier for JSON to remove comments and whitespace

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/getify/JSON.minify
• Owner: getify
• Created: 2010-06-22T12:25:20.000Z (over 14 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2024-02-06T01:56:05.000Z (9 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-07-25T11:22:08.802Z (4 months ago)
• Homepage: http://web.archive.org/web/20100629021329/http://blog.getify.com/2010/06/json-comments/
• Size: 109 KB
• Stars: 408
• Watchers: 25
• Forks: 102
• Open Issues: 15
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# JSON minify

Minify blocks of JSON-like content into valid JSON by removing all white-space *and* C/C++ style comments.

JSON parsers (like JavaScript's `JSON.parse()` parser) generally don't consider JSON with comments to be valid and parseable. So, the intended usage is of this project is to minify development-friendly JSON (i.e with comments) to valid JSON before parsing, such as:

```js

JSON.parse(JSON.minify(str))

```

Now you can maintain development-friendly JSON documents, where your source is formatted & commented, but minify them before parsing or before transmitting them over-the-wire.

As transmitting bloated (ie, with comments/white-space) JSON would be wasteful and silly, this JSON minify can also be used for server-side processing environments where you can strip comments/white-space from JSON before parsing a JSON document or before transmitting such over-the-wire from server to browser.

Though comments are not officially part of the JSON standard, [this][yahoo-groups-link] post from Douglas Crockford back in late 2005 helps explain the motivation behind this project.

> A JSON encoder MUST NOT output comments. A JSON decoder MAY accept and ignore comments.

Basically, comments are not in the JSON *generation* standard, but that doesn't mean that a parser can't be taught to ignore them. Which is exactly what JSON minify is for.

The first implementation of JSON minify was in JavaScript (as `JSON.minify`), but the intent is to port the implementation to as many other environments and languages as possible/practical.

## Using JSON Minify

Currently, JSON minify has been ported to multiple languages including PHP, Python, Objective C. Each of these ports live on a separate branch in the [Github repository][repo-link]. Language specific instructions can be found in their respective branches.

 [yahoo-groups-link]: http://web.archive.org/web/20130101004216/http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/json/message/152

 [php-port]: https://github.com/getify/JSON.minify/tree/php

 [repo-link]: https://github.com/getify/JSON.minify