JSON data types

Because JSON is designed to be lightweight, it supports only four primitive data types, as shown in the following table.

Table 1. JSON primitive data types
Data type	Description	Examples
string	A string of Unicode characters enclosed in double quotes. A backslash ( \ ) serves as the escape character.	"jump rope"
number	An unquoted numeric value, which can include an exponent	1754.350.9582e-42
boolean	An unquoted lowercase literal string of true or false	true
null	An unquoted lowercase literal string of null	null

The data type of a value is determined by the format of the value. In addition to these primitive data types, there are some non-standard data types in common usage for certain values. For more information about ABL support of non-standard data types, see Data typemapping .

JSON also supports two complex data types, as shown in the following table:

Table 2. JSON complex data types
Data type	Description	Examples
Object	A comma-delimited list of named values, either simple or complex, enclosed in braces	{ "myString" : "jump rope", "myNum" : 17, "myBool" : false }
Array	A comma-delimited list of unnamed values, either simple or complex, enclosed in brackets	[ "jump rope", 17, false ]