jsonutil - Convenience functions for working with JSON

Working with JSON in Node.js is pretty straightforward, but there are a couple of things that could be a bit more convenient. Examples are copying objects, as well as reading them from, and writing them to, files. The jsonutil package addresses just those scenarios with a few handy utility functions.

Installation

Just use npm:

npm install jsonutil

Copying JSON objects

deepCopy(obj)

Makes a deep copy (a.k.a. clone) of the supplied object. This function reliably copies only what is valid for a JSON object, array, or other element.

Arguments

• obj, the object of which a copy is to be made.

shallowCopy(obj)

Makes a shallow (i.e. top level only) copy of the supplied object. This function reliably copies only what is valid for a JSON object, array, or other element.

Arguments

• obj, the object of which a copy is to be made.

copy(obj, shallow)

Makes a copy of the supplied object, either shallow or deep, according to the second argument. This function reliably copies only what is valid for a JSON object, array, or other element.

Arguments

• obj, the object of which a copy is to be made.
• shallow, a boolean indicating whether the copy should be shallow or deep.

Working with JSON files

readFile(file, cb)

Reads a JSON file and parses it, calling the callback with the resulting object.

Arguments

• file, the file from which to read and parse JSON.
• cb(err, obj), a callback function that will be called with either the object read from the file, or an error.

readFileSync(file)

A synchronous version of readFile (see above) that returns the parsed object or throws an error.

writeFile(file, obj, [indent], cb)

Writes a JSON file with the specified data. Serializing the data will fail if the data contains a cyclic structure.

• file, the file to which the object will be written.
• obj, the object to be written as JSON.
• indent, the indentation level, in spaces, of the JSON output. [Default: no indentation]
• cb(err), a callback function that will be called with either null on success, or an error.

writeFileSync(file, data, [indent])

A synchronous version of writeFile (see above) that throws any error.

License

jsonutil is licensed under the MIT License.