Pretty print + cleanup

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've been using JSONSimple, and needed to pretty-print json. I've extended the 
writeJSONString 
to accept optional indent argument, and it works well enough for me. Attached 
is sample output.
While doing this, I've noticed that JSON generation code was duplicated: 
toJSONString and 
writeJSONString in JSONObject//Array/Value are very similar, so I changed all 
toJSONString to 
simply:

public static String toJSONString(Map map, int indent){
    StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
    try {
        writeJSONString(map, sw, indent);
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(JSONObject.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
    return sw.toString();
}

If you are interested in any of these changes, I can make you a diff. I am not 
sure what the best 
way would be to make changes backward compatible, I need to pass around that 
indent 
argument. Extend JSONStreamAware interface? 

Kudos on your clean design. Exactly what I needed, simplest reflection of js 
into java.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ato...@gmail.com on 21 Apr 2010 at 5:28

Attachments:

• sample.json

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by fangyid...@gmail.com on 14 Jul 2010 at 1:16

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Having pretty print would be a great feature for the library.

Original comment by jfden...@gmail.com on 17 Sep 2010 at 12:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It would indeed be useful. Will this be integrated ?

Original comment by sebastie...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 7:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I do not have the bandwidth to shepherd this patch. For anyone interested in 
using it, I've attached my source code. You can use it by replacing the source 
in an existing project.

Original comment by ato...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 7:55

Attachments:

• org.zip

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Your patch has some strange differences with the trunk in SVN, a couple of 
methods are removed... are you sure you used the trunk to make your changes ?

Original comment by sebastie...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 10:51

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The strange differences are entirely possible, once I gave up on the idea of 
submitting a patch, I might have gotten creative. I did use the trunk as it was 
about 6 months ago.

Original comment by ato...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 11:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Pretty printing is a nice feature for this lib, but I argue that this should be 
implemented as a stand alone component using the lexer to read JSON and then 
write the output according to some configuration. It should not be that hard to 
implement nor would it have to be expensive for the VM. 

The only change to the core that makes sense to me is to replace #toJSONString 
to use a PrintWriter rather than a StringBuffer (why isn't this a 
StringBuilder?) in order to make it a true streaming API.

Original comment by karl.wet...@gmail.com on 7 Oct 2010 at 11:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well I ended up needing a JSON library and I liked this one but I needed it 
pretty-printed good thing the source was here so I could customize it... 

Im posting the code here hope u guys find it useful =)

Changes I made:
Added a class named: 
  ---> JSONPrettyPrint.java

Added 2 methods at JSONValue.java named:

  ---> writePrettyJSONString
  ---> toPrettyJSONString

Added 2 methods at JSONArray.java named:

  ---> writePrettyJSONString
  ---> toPrettyJSONString

the output should be something like this:
{
    "k3":["lv1","lv2"],
    "k1":"v1",
    "k2":
    {
    "mk1":"mv1",
    "mk2":["lv1","lv2"]
    }

 }

or even like this:

{
    "k3":["lv1","lv2"],
    "k1":"v1",
    "k2":
    {
    "mk1":"mv1",
    "mk2":["lv1","lv2"]
    }
    "k3":[
    {
    "zk1":"zv1",
    "zk2":"zv2"
    }]
 }

another change I made is that '/' is not considered an escape character in 
Java, so I commented the code that turns it into '\/' because it was messing 
all my stuff here

Original comment by fawi...@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2010 at 5:58

Attachments:

• [json simple modified to pretty print.zip](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/json-simple/issue-22/comment-8/json simple modified to pretty print.zip)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I also need the pretty printing for json string.
So not to change/extend the json-simple classes, I created a new type of 
java.io.Writer that adds indentation.
Attaching the source here.
To use it:
Writer writer = new JSonWriter(); // this is the new writter that adds 
indentation.
jsonObject.writeJSONString(writer);

Original comment by eladta...@gmail.com on 28 Nov 2011 at 4:44

Attachments:

• JSonWriter.java

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think the writer approach is great. Good work. I hope pretty printing becomes 
a standard in JSON Simple. I have reviewed many JSON libraries and this is the 
best for it's flexibility and easy of use. Pretty printing was my only gripe.

Original comment by celo...@gmail.com on 29 Nov 2011 at 1:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thank you all for the help. May consider it in future release.

Original comment by fangyid...@gmail.com on 29 Nov 2011 at 3:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

JSonWriter is a cool solution! This is all what I want to have. Thank you very 
much for the work.

Original comment by pattre...@gmail.com on 22 Aug 2012 at 7:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I guess if after three years no one has added a few newlines and an indent 
counter, it's not going to happen... Too bad---it looked like a nice little 
library.

Original comment by garretdw...@gmail.com on 28 Jan 2013 at 9:04

[GoogleCodeExporter]

+1 for the JSONWriter, it should be added to the project

Original comment by julianf...@gmail.com on 3 Sep 2013 at 4:09

[GoogleCodeExporter]

In one line:

    String niceFormattedJson = JsonWriter.formatJson(jsonString)

The json-io libray (https://github.com/jdereg/json-io) is a small (75K) library 
with no other dependencies than the JDK.

In addition to pretty-printing JSON, you can serialize Java objects (entire 
Java object graphs with cycles) to JSON, as well as read them in.

Original comment by jdereg@gmail.com on 24 Feb 2014 at 6:18

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thank you thanks a lot

Original comment by physt...@gmail.com on 4 Mar 2014 at 6:38

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thank you for your solution, Elad. Unfortunately, it's not aware of special 
characters which are part of strings, but it's still helpful.

jdereg, ironically, the json-io library depends on gson, which is the 200K 
library I was using before I tried to switch to json-simple.

Original comment by bluej...@gmail.com on 3 Sep 2014 at 5:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Minor improvements for the great Elad's contribution: configurable space after 
colon, more readable code.

Original comment by mkomosin...@cs.put.poznan.pl on 2 Apr 2015 at 10:21

Attachments:

• JSONWriter.java