• Google Maps
• Google Auth 2.0 Authentication
• Facebook Social Graph API
• Spotify Music Web API
• LinkedIn Profile API

JSON Syntax

Since JSON is derived from the JavaScriptprogramminglanguage, its appearance is similar to that of JavaScript objects.

A sample JSON object is represented as follows:

{  "student": {    "name": "Rumaisa Mahoney",    "age": 30,    "fullTime": true,    "languages": [ "JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS" ],    "GPA": 3.9,    "favoriteSubject": null  }}
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{  "student": {    "name": "Rumaisa Mahoney",    "age": 30,    "fullTime": true,    "languages": [ "JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS" ],    "GPA": 3.9,    "favoriteSubject": null  }}

Note the following syntax rules for JSON:

• The curly braces,{}, hold objects.
• The square brackets,[], hold arrays.
• Data is stored in key:value pairs separated by a colon,:.
• Every key:value pair is separated from another pair by a comma,,. Similarly, every item in an array is delimited by a comma.Trailing commasare forbidden.
• Property names in JSON must be wrapped in double quotes,"", even though JavaScript names are not held by this stringency.
• JSON does not support comments.

The following object would be valid JavaScript, but is not valid JSON:

{  "student": {    name: "Rumaisa Mahoney",    "age": 30,    "fullTime": true,    "languages": [ "JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS", ],    "GPA": 3.9,    'favoriteSubject': null  }}
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{  "student": {    name: "Rumaisa Mahoney",    "age": 30,    "fullTime": true,    "languages": [ "JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS", ],    "GPA": 3.9,    'favoriteSubject': null  }}

• Thenameproperty is not wrapping double quotes.
• The"languages"array has a trailing comma after the final item,"CSS".
• 'favoriteSubject'uses single quotes instead of double quotes.

JSON Data Types

A JSON data type must be one of the following:

• string (must be wrapped in double quotes, like property names)
• number (integer or floating point)
• object (key:value pair)
• array (comma-separated values)
• boolean (trueorfalse, without quotes)
• null

Try to find all the data types in this JSON example:

{  "student": {    "name": "Rumaisa Mahoney",    "age": 30,    "fullTime": true,    "languages": [ "JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS" ],    "GPA": 3.9,    "favoriteSubject": null  }}
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Notably, JSON doesn’t cover every data type. Types that are not represented in JSON, such as dates, can be stored as a string and converted to a language-specific data structure. Here’s an acceptable internationally-recognized date format inISO 8601:

"2014-01-01T23:28:56.782Z"

This format contains parts which resemble a date and time. However, as a string, it is hard for a programming language to use as is. Conveniently, every programming language has built-in JSON facilities to convert this string into a more readable and usable format, such as:

Wed Jan 01 2014 13:28:56 GMT-1000 (Hawaiian Standard Time)

This pretty much covers the basic description of JSON, its popularity, and its syntax. Congratulations on reaching this milestone!

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