JSONserializable

JSONserializable is a term used in programming to describe a value that can be encoded in JSON without requiring nonstandard or custom encoding. JSON, JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-based data-interchange format that represents data using numbers, strings, booleans, null, arrays, and objects. A value is JSONserializable if it consists only of these types or can be converted to one of them without loss of information.

In practice, different languages provide mechanisms to produce JSON serializations. In Python, the json module can serialize built-in types, such as dicts and lists. For custom objects, you typically supply a converter, via a default function to json.dumps or by implementing a to_dict method or a custom JSONEncoder subclass. In JavaScript, JSON.stringify handles native objects; Date objects are often converted to strings, and functions or symbols are not serialized. In Java, libraries such as Jackson or Gson can serialize Java objects to JSON, often using annotations or custom serializers to control what is included.

Common pitfalls include non-serializable types (such as sets, bytes, or complex numbers), or data structures with circular references. To produce JSONserializable data, you should convert such values to supported representations, such as turning sets into lists or dates into ISO strings, and avoid cycles.

Why it matters: JSON is widely used for data exchange across systems, APIs, and configuration. Producing JSONserializable data ensures interoperability and easier deserialization. See also: JSON, data serialization, API payload, encoding.