HJSON

Purpose

To provide a format better suited than JSON for hand-written configuration while remaining convertible back to standard JSON.

Mechanism

It allows # and // comments, unquoted keys and string values, multiline strings, and trailing commas. Parsed output becomes standard JSON values. Its type inference is more conservative than YAML's.

Use cases

• Application configuration files
• Hand-maintained data
• Document frontmatter
• A simpler alternative to YAML

Examples

• Input

  name: Ada
  age: 36

  Output

  The object {name:"Ada", age:36}

  Unquoted keys and values

Common errors

HJSON parsers are less widespread than JSON parsers

Confirm the target environment has an HJSON parser