JSON guides and tutorials
Practical, example-driven articles for developers who work with JSON: how to format it, why it fails to parse, how to convert it, how to describe it with a schema, and how to design APIs around it. Each guide includes working code you can copy, and links to the matching tool when you want to try it on your own data.
Basics
How to Format and Pretty-Print JSON (Browser, Code and Command Line)
Learn how to format and pretty-print JSON in a browser tool, JavaScript, Python, Java, C# and the command line, and avoid the big-number pitfall that silently changes your data.
7 min read
JSON vs XML vs YAML: Differences and When to Use Each
Compare JSON, XML and YAML side by side with the same data in all three formats: syntax, comments, data types, readability, pitfalls and the best use case for each.
8 min read
JSON Stringify and Parse: Escaping, Double Encoding and Common Pitfalls
Understand JSON.stringify and JSON.parse, how to unescape JSON stored inside a string, why double encoding happens, and which values stringify silently drops or breaks.
8 min read
How to Filter and Query JSON: Dot Notation, jq and JSONPath
Extract the data you need from large nested JSON with dot notation, array indexes, jq and JSONPath, plus JavaScript and Python equivalents and how to handle missing keys.
8 min read
How to Minify JSON (and When It Actually Helps)
Learn how to minify JSON in JavaScript, Python, jq and a browser tool, how much size it really saves with and without gzip or Brotli, and when you should not minify.
6 min read
Troubleshooting
Conversion
Data modeling
JSON Schema Explained for Beginners (With Examples)
Learn what JSON Schema is, how type, properties, required and enum work, how to combine and reuse schemas, and how to validate data in Python and JavaScript.
10 min read
How to Sort JSON: Object Keys and Arrays of Objects
Sort JSON object keys for clean diffs and sort arrays of objects by one or more fields, with jq, JavaScript and Python examples, sorting pitfalls and canonical JSON.
7 min read
Testing
How to Compare Two JSON Files and Find the Real Differences
Why a plain text diff fails on JSON, how to normalize files first, how to handle arrays, and working Python and command-line examples to compare JSON structurally.
8 min read
How to Generate Realistic Mock JSON Data for Testing and Prototyping
Create realistic fake JSON for API tests, front-end development and demos: design principles, edge cases, seeded Faker examples in JavaScript and Python, and privacy tips.
9 min read