Serialize an R object to JSON

Create JSON from an R object. Note that this function is not a generic serializer that can represent any R object in JSON. Also, you cannot expect that unserialize_json() will do the exact inverse of serialize_json().

Usage

serialize_json(obj, file = NULL, collapse = FALSE, options = NULL)

Arguments

obj

R object to serialize.

file

If not NULL then the result if written to this file.

collapse

If file is NULL then whether to return a character scalar or a character vector.

options

List of options, see tsjson_options(). This argument must be named and cannot be abbreviated.

Value

If file is NULL then a character scalar (collapse = TRUE) or vector (collapse = FALSE). If file is not NULL then nothing.

Details

tsjson functions update_selected() and insert_into_selected() use serialize_json() to create new JSON code.

See example below on how to create all possible JSON elements with serialize_json().

See also

unserialize_json() for the opposite.

Examples

# null
serialize_json(NULL)
#> [1] "null"

# true, false, use a logical scalar
serialize_json(TRUE)
#> [1] "true"
serialize_json(FALSE)
#> [1] "false"

# strings, use a character scalar
serialize_json("string with escapes: \b \ud020")
#> [1] "\"string with escapes: \\b 퀠\""

# number, use a numeric scalar
serialize_json(42.25)
#> [1] "42.25"

# array, use an unnamed list, i.e. _not_ an atomic vector
txt <- serialize_json(list(1, 2, 3,"x", "y"))
load_json(text = txt)
#> # json (7 lines)
#> 1 | [
#> 2 |   1,
#> 3 |   2,
#> 4 |   3,
#> 5 |   "x",
#> 6 |   "y"
#> 7 | ]

# empty array
serialize_json(list())
#> [1] "[]"

# object, use a named (or partially named) list, i.e. _not_ an atomic vector
txt <- serialize_json(list(a = 1, b = 2))
load_json(text = txt)
#> # json (4 lines)
#> 1 | {
#> 2 |   "a": 1,
#> 3 |   "b": 2
#> 4 | }

# empty object, use a named empty list
serialize_json(structure(list(), names = character()))
#> [1] "{}"