Method to get string representations of values

[skaupper]

I've come across occasions where I needed to "stringify" a single value.
I know that there is dump() to serialize the whole object but it doesn't work as I would expected it (string values are enclosed in double quotes). Actually I know dump() is not meant for representing a single value as string that's why I want to suggest to add a method responsible for converting the value to a string.

My own implementation that I'm currently using looks like following:

inline std::string to_string(const json &j)
{
    auto tmp = j.dump();
    
    if (j.type() == json::value_t::string) {
        return tmp.substr(1, tmp.size() - 2);
    } else {
        return tmp;
    }
}

So, basically I want code like this to work.

    json j = "{\"field\": 1234}"_json;
    std::string s = j["field"].to_string();

Could you imagine having such a method?
Maybe it is possible to specialize the get() method to get such a behaviour?

[theodelrieu]

I understand the need, but I'm not sure we can modify the behavior of get, users may rely on strict type matching in every case.

We could add a templated method as<U>, that would retrieve the correct type and then attempt to convert to U.

But this can add confusion (remembering which of get and as is strict can be problematic).

[skaupper]

I understand the need, but I'm not sure we can modify the behavior of get, users may rely on strict type matching in every case.

That sounds reasonable.

But this can add confusion (remembering which of get and as is strict can be problematic).

What if the new template method is named get_as<U>? Wouldn't that clearify its behaviour?

[theodelrieu]

That seems correct.
So if U is json::string_t, we shall convert the value to a string, else, we just rely on regular type conversion?

It'd be great if you could experiment a bit with this, don't hesitate to open a PR!

We shall discuss this in more depth, with @nlohmann and others too.

[skaupper]

So if U is json::string_t, we shall convert the value to a string, else, we just rely on regular type conversion?

The problem is that

json j = "{\"field\": 1234}"_json;
std::string s = j["field"].get_as<std::string>();

would work but code like

json j = "{\"field\": \"1234\"}"_json;
int i = j["field"].get_as<int>();

would not.

If we take the get_as<U> approach (instead of just as_string) we would need to implement both directions, to AND from string.
We would at least need to write specializations for all json::string -> primitive type conversions (get_as<uint32_t> and so on) and fall back to get<T> for other types.

I've just looked up the type_traits header. It seems like it is doable.

[theodelrieu]

Indeed, the main issue I see if we go down that road, is that we must handle all cases (null as an int or string) etc...

I don't know what the JSON standard says about conversions, and @nlohmann knows a lot more about it than me.
This feature would add complexity to the implementation, so I'd like to have more people inputs about it before going further.

[gregmarr]

This seems like a perfectly reasonable and simple helper function for a user to implement if they need this functionality. I don't know that it's important enough to put it in the main library, as it seems like a pretty specific need.

inline std::string to_string(const json &j)
{
    if (j.type() == json::value_t::string) {
        return j.get<std::string>();
    }

    return j.dump();
}

[skaupper]

@gregmarr Thanks, I'll go with that for now.
Let's see what the maintainers say about that whole conversion thing.

[nlohmann]

Note that dump also escapes characters in the string.

I agree with @theodelrieu that a full-fledged "convert anything to anything" function would add unnecessary complexity to the library that makes it simpler to use by a few, but also harder to maintain and test. As @gregmarr pointed out, there is also no need for a library function as you can implement your own getter.

[nlohmann]

Anything to be done here?

[Milerius]

any news for a get_as ?

[rnehra01]

@nlohmann A similar use case. Is it possible to store an integer/float as string instead of using std::stod/stoll for conversion (maybe for all interger/floats present in json string)?
E.g

json j = json::parse("{\"field\": 12.34}");
std::string  = j["field"];

It is needed because string to double conversion using stod cause precision loss.