Generic JSON makes it easy to deal with freeform JSON strings without creating a separate, well-typed structure.
Swift 4 introduced a new JSON encoding and decoding machinery represented by the Codable protocol. The feature is very nice and very type-safe, meaning it’s no longer possible to just willy-nilly decode a JSON string pulling random untyped data from it. Which is good™ most of the time – but what should you do when you do want to just willy-nilly encode or decode a JSON string without introducing a separate, well-typed structure for it? For example:
// error: heterogeneous collection literal could only be inferred to '[String : Any]';
// add explicit type annotation if this is intentional
let json = [
"foo": "foo",
"bar": 1,
]
// Okay then:
let json: [String:Any] = [
"foo": "foo",
"bar": 1,
]
// But: fatal error: Dictionary<String, Any> does not conform to Encodable because Any does not conform to Encodable.
let encoded = try JSONEncoder().encode(json)So this doesn’t work very well. Also, the json value can’t be checked for equality with another, although arbitrary JSON values should support equality. Enter JSON.
let json: JSON = [
"foo": "foo",
"bar": 1,
]
// "{"bar":1,"foo":"foo"}"
let str = try String(data: try JSONEncoder().encode(json), encoding: .utf8)!
let hopefullyTrue = (json == json) // true!struct Player: Codable {
let name: String
let swings: Bool
}
let val = try JSON(encodable: Player(name: "Miles", swings: true))
val == [
"name": "Miles",
"swings": true,
] // trueConsider the following JSON structure:
let json: JSON = [
"num": 1,
"str": "baz",
"bool": true,
"obj": [
"foo": "jar",
"bar": 1,
]
]Querying values can be done using optional property accessors, subscripting or dynamic member subscripting:
// Property accessors
if let str = json.objectValue?["str"]?.stringValue { … }
if let foo = json.objectValue?["obj"]?.objectValue?["foo"]?.stringValue { … }
// Subscripting
if let str = json["str"]?.stringValue { … }
if let foo = json["obj"]?["foo"]?.stringValue { … }
// Dynamic member subscripting
if let str = json.str?.stringValue { … }
if let foo = json.obj?.foo?.stringValue { … }You may even drill through nested structures using a dot-separated key path:
let val = json[keyPath: "obj.foo"] // "jar"