diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 2994af4..e904de1 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Ultralightweight JSON parser in ANSI C. * [Building](#building) * [Including cJSON](#including-cjson) * [Data Structure](#data-structure) + * [Working with the data structure](#working-with-the-data-structure) * [Parsing JSON](#parsing-json) * [Printing JSON](#printing-json) * [Some JSON](#some-json) @@ -165,6 +166,58 @@ Additionally there are the following two flags: * `cJSON_IsReference`: Specifies that the item that `child` points to and/or `valuestring` is not owned by this item, it is only a reference. So `cJSON_Delete` and other functions will only deallocate this item, not it's children/valuestring. * `cJSON_StringIsConst`: This means that `string` points to a constant string. This means that `cJSON_Delete` and other functions will not try to deallocate `string`. +### Working with the data structure + +For every value type there is a `cJSON_Create...` function that can be used to create an item of that type. +All of these will allocate a `cJSON` struct that can later be deleted with `cJSON_Delete`. +Note that you have to delete them at some point, otherwise you will get a memory leak. +**Important**: If you have added an item to an array or an object already, you **mustn't** delete it with `cJSON_Delete`. Adding it to an array or object transfers its ownership so that when that array or object is deleted, it gets deleted as well. + +#### Basic types +* **null** is created with `cJSON_CreateNull` +* **booleans** are created with `cJSON_CreateTrue`, `cJSON_CreateFalse` or `cJSON_CreateBool` +* **numbers** are created with `cJSON_CreateNumber`. This will set both `valuedouble` and `valueint`. If the number is outside of the range of an integer, `INT_MAX` or `INT_MIN` are used for `valueint` +* **strings** are created with `cJSON_CreateString` (copies the string) or with `cJSON_CreateStringReference` (directly points to the string. This means that `valuestring` won't be deleted by `cJSON_Delete` and you are responsible for it's lifetime, useful for constants) + +#### Arrays + +You can create an empty array with `cJSON_CreateArray`. `cJSON_CreateArrayReference` can be used to create an array that doesn't "own" its content, so its content doesn't get deleted by `cJSON_Delete`. + +To add items to an array, use `cJSON_AddItemToArray` to append items to the end. +Using `cJSON_AddItemReferenceToArray` an element can be added as a reference to another item, array or string. This means that `cJSON_Delete` will not delete that items `child` or `valuestring` properties, so no double frees are occuring if they are already used elsewhere. +To insert items in the middle, use `cJSON_InsertItemInArray`. It will insert an item at the given 0 based index and shift all the existing items to the right. + +If you want to take an item out of an array at a given index and continue using it, use `cJSON_DetachItemFromArray`, it will return the detached item, so be sure to assign it to a pointer, otherwise you will have a memory leak. + +Deleting items is done with `cJSON_DeleteItemFromArray`. It works like `cJSON_DetachItemFromArray`, but deletes the detached item via `cJSON_Delete`. + +You can also replace an item in an array in place. Either with `cJSON_ReplaceItemInArray` using an index or with `cJSON_ReplaceItemViaPointer` given a pointer to an element. `cJSON_ReplaceItemViaPointer` will return `0` if it fails. What this does internally is to detach the old item, delete it and insert the new item in its place. + +To get the size of an array, use `cJSON_GetArraySize`. Use `cJSON_GetArrayItem` to get an element at a given index. + +Because an array is stored as a linked list, iterating it via index is inefficient (`O(n²)`), so you can iterate over an array using the `cJSON_ArrayForEach` macro in `O(n)` time complexity. + +#### Objects + +You can create an empty object with `cJSON_CreateObject`. `cJSON_CreateObjectReference` can be used to create an object that doesn't "own" its content, so its content doesn't get deleted by `cJSON_Delete`. + +To add items to an object, use `cJSON_AddItemToObject`. Use `cJSON_AddItemToObjectCS` to add an item to an object with a name that is a constant or reference (key of the item, `string` in the `cJSON` struct), so that it doesn't get freed by `cJSON_Delete`. +Using `cJSON_AddItemReferenceToArray` an element can be added as a reference to another object, array or string. This means that `cJSON_Delete` will not delete that items `child` or `valuestring` properties, so no double frees are occuring if they are already used elsewhere. + +If you want to take an item out of an object, use `cJSON_DetachItemFromObjectCaseSensitive`, it will return the detached item, so be sure to assign it to a pointer, otherwise you will have a memory leak. + +Deleting items is done with `cJSON_DeleteItemFromObjectCaseSensitive`. It works like `cJSON_DetachItemFromObjectCaseSensitive` followed by `cJSON_Delete`. + +You can also replace an item in an object in place. Either with `cJSON_ReplaceItemInObjectCaseSensitive` using a key or with `cJSON_ReplaceItemViaPointer` given a pointer to an element. `cJSON_ReplaceItemViaPointer` will return `0` if it fails. What this does internally is to detach the old item, delete it and insert the new item in its place. + +To get the size of an object, you can use `cJSON_GetArraySize`, this works because internally objects are stored as arrays. + +If you want to access an item in an object, use `cJSON_GetObjectItemCaseSensitive`. + +To iterate over an object, you can use the `cJSON_ArrayForEach` macro the same way as for arrays. + +cJSON also provides convenient helper functions for quickly creating a new item and adding it to an object, like `cJSON_AddNullToObject`. They return a pointer to the new item or `NULL` if they failed. + ### Parsing JSON Given some JSON in a zero terminated string, you can parse it with `cJSON_Parse`.