Working confidently with JSON
Formatting and validating JSON makes APIs easier to debug, document, and transmit. A formatter shows structure, highlights errors, and produces minified payloads for production.
Why JSON became ubiquitous
Introduced as a lightweight alternative to XML, JSON maps naturally to objects and arrays in most languages.
Its human-readable syntax makes it ideal for configuration files, REST responses, and messaging protocols.
Key Sorting Benefits
Sorting keys alphabetically makes JSON documents easier to compare and review in version control.
Consistent key ordering helps identify changes in configuration files and API responses.
Pretty-print vs minify
Pretty-printing adds whitespace for readability, perfect for code reviews or documentation.
Minifying strips unnecessary characters to reduce bandwidth and storage in production builds.
When to reach for a formatter
- Inspecting webhook payloads received from third-party services
- Reviewing configuration changes before deploying feature flags
- Teaching teammates the shape of a new API response
- Compressing large datasets before storing them as fixtures
Best practices
- Validate against a JSON Schema when possible to enforce contracts
- Sort keys consistently for easier diff comparisons in git
- Escape user-generated strings before embedding them into JSON literals
- Log parse errors with context (line and column) for faster triage