Re: JSON data in the wild

I would remember that JSON was invented by and for people who don't like 
to admit that data formats must be precise and predictable (or, for that 
matter, documented) in order for them to be usefully shared.

The standardizer in me says "reject out of hand such abominations".

The practitioner in me says "that's just how it is; how can we adapt".

Jim

On 9/9/2015 3:42 PM, Robie, Jonathan wrote:
> I think you'll see both this format and comma-delimited objects in the 
> wild.
>
> {"_id":707860,"name":"Hurzuf","country":"UA","coord":{"lon":34.283333,"lat":44.549999}},
> {"_id":519188,"name":"Novinki","country":"RU","coord":{"lon":37.666668,"lat":55.683334}},
> {"_id":1283378,"name":"Gorkhā","country":"NP","coord":{"lon":84.633331,"lat":28}}
>
> I don't think the JSON specification licenses either.  But you 
> frequently want "a collection of objects", a concept that JSON does 
> not define.  You can always put it in an array, but that's an extra 
> node that you don't really want or need.
>
> [
> {"_id":707860,"name":"Hurzuf","country":"UA","coord":{"lon":34.283333,"lat":44.549999}},
> {"_id":519188,"name":"Novinki","country":"RU","coord":{"lon":37.666668,"lat":55.683334}},
> {"_id":1283378,"name":"Gorkhā","country":"NP","coord":{"lon":84.633331,"lat":28}}
> ]
>
> You'll also see JSON files in which the keys are not quote delimited. 
> They aren't valid JSON files, but you do see them.
>
> My take:
>
> 1. It's OK to require people to make their files valid JSON (e.g. I 
> don't think we need to support keys without quotes)
> 2. We really should have a serialization format for collections of 
> objects. One format is sufficient, people can massage things into that 
> format.
>
> Jonathan
>
> Jonathan
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Michael Kay [mike@saxonica.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, September 09, 2015 5:21 PM
> *To:* public-xsl-query@w3.org
> *Subject:* JSON data in the wild
>
> I tried to download some real JSON data today - from 
> openweathermap.org <http://openweathermap.org> - and found that it’s 
> in a format we can’t handle. Specifically, a sequence of maps/objects, 
> newline-separated:
>
> {"_id":707860,"name":"Hurzuf","country":"UA","coord":{"lon":34.283333,"lat":44.549999}}
> {"_id":519188,"name":"Novinki","country":"RU","coord":{"lon":37.666668,"lat":55.683334}}
> {"_id":1283378,"name":"Gorkhā","country":"NP","coord":{"lon":84.633331,"lat":28}}
>
> I wonder if this is common and whether we should cater for it?
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica

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Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL)     Phone: +1.801.942.0144
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