deploy: cc917d7123

home/faq/index.html

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 <span class=n>json</span><span class=w> </span><span class=n>obj</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>=</span><span class=w> </span><span class=p>{{</span><span class=s>"key"</span><span class=p>,</span><span class=w> </span><span class=s>"value"</span><span class=p>}};</span>
 <span class=n>json</span><span class=w> </span><span class=n>j</span><span class=p>{</span><span class=n>obj</span><span class=p>};</span><span class=w>   </span><span class=c1>// -&gt; {"key":"value"}  (copy, not array)</span>
-</code></pre></div> <p>Without the macro (default behavior), <code>json j{obj}</code> creates <code>[{"key":"value"}]</code>. This opt-in macro fixes issue #5074 while preserving backwards compatibility for existing code.</p> <h2 id=limitations>Limitations<a class=headerlink href=#limitations title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2> <h3 id=relaxed-parsing>Relaxed parsing<a class=headerlink href=#relaxed-parsing title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Question</p> <p>Can you add an option to ignore trailing commas?</p> </div> <p>Yes, trailing commas in arrays and objects can be allowed by setting parameter <code>ignore_trailing_commas</code> of <a href=../../api/basic_json/parse/ ><code>parse</code></a> to <code class=highlight><span class=nb>true</span></code>; see <a href=../../features/trailing_commas/ >trailing commas</a>. They are rejected by default, and the library never adds them when serializing.</p> <h3 id=parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters>Parse errors reading non-<abbr title="American Standard Code for Information Interchange">ASCII</abbr> characters<a class=headerlink href=#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why is the parser complaining about a Chinese character?</li> <li>Does the library support Unicode?</li> <li>I get an exception <code>[json.exception.parse_error.101] parse error at line 1, column 53: syntax error while parsing value - invalid string: ill-formed UTF-8 byte; last read: '"Testé$')"</code></li> </ul> </div> <p>The library supports <strong>Unicode input</strong> as follows:</p> <ul> <li>Only <strong><abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8</strong> encoded input is supported, which is the default encoding for <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>, according to <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html#section-8.1"><abbr title="Request for Comments">RFC</abbr> 8259</a>.</li> <li><code>std::u16string</code> and <code>std::u32string</code> can be parsed, assuming <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-16 and <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-32 encoding, respectively. These encodings are not supported when reading from files or other input containers.</li> <li>Other encodings such as Latin-1 or <abbr title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr> 8859-1 are <strong>not</strong> supported and will yield parse or serialization errors.</li> <li>The library will not replace <a href="http://www.unicode.org/faq/private_use.html#nonchar1">Unicode noncharacters</a>.</li> <li>Invalid surrogates (e.g., incomplete pairs such as <code>\uDEAD</code>) will yield parse errors.</li> <li>The strings stored in the library are <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 encoded. When using the default string type (<code>std::string</code>), note that its length/size functions return the number of stored bytes rather than the number of characters or glyphs.</li> <li>When you store strings with different encodings in the library, calling <a href=../../api/basic_json/dump/ ><code>dump()</code></a> may throw an exception unless <code>json::error_handler_t::replace</code>, <code>json::error_handler_t::ignore</code>, or <code>json::error_handler_t::keep</code> are used as error handlers.</li> </ul> <p>In most cases, the parser is right to complain, because the input is not <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 encoded. This is especially true for Microsoft Windows, where Latin-1 or <abbr title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr> 8859-1 is often the standard encoding.</p> <h3 id=nul-bytes-in-the-input>NUL bytes in the input<a class=headerlink href=#nul-bytes-in-the-input title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why does <a href=../../api/basic_json/parse/ ><code>json::parse()</code></a> silently ignore part of my input?</li> <li>Why does a <code>std::string</code>/buffer with extra data after the <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr> text parse without error, while a similar-looking string with extra text does not?</li> </ul> </div> <p>A <code>'\0'</code> (NUL) byte anywhere in the input is treated the same as the real end of the input, rather than as an ordinary (and, outside of a string, invalid) byte. Everything from that byte onward is silently ignored, without a parse error — including further, otherwise well-formed <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>:</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=n>json</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>parse</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>std</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>string</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=s>"123"</span><span class=p>)</span><span class=w>Line truncated
+</code></pre></div> <p>Without the macro (default behavior), <code>json j{obj}</code> creates <code>[{"key":"value"}]</code>. This opt-in macro fixes issue #5074 while preserving backwards compatibility for existing code.</p> <h2 id=limitations>Limitations<a class=headerlink href=#limitations title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2> <h3 id=relaxed-parsing>Relaxed parsing<a class=headerlink href=#relaxed-parsing title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Question</p> <p>Can you add an option to ignore trailing commas?</p> </div> <p>Yes, trailing commas in arrays and objects can be allowed by setting parameter <code>ignore_trailing_commas</code> of <a href=../../api/basic_json/parse/ ><code>parse</code></a> to <code class=highlight><span class=nb>true</span></code>; see <a href=../../features/trailing_commas/ >trailing commas</a>. They are rejected by default, and the library never adds them when serializing.</p> <h3 id=parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters>Parse errors reading non-<abbr title="American Standard Code for Information Interchange">ASCII</abbr> characters<a class=headerlink href=#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why is the parser complaining about a Chinese character?</li> <li>Does the library support Unicode?</li> <li>I get an exception <code>[json.exception.parse_error.101] parse error at line 1, column 53: syntax error while parsing value - invalid string: ill-formed UTF-8 byte; last read: '"Testé$')"</code></li> </ul> </div> <p>The library supports <strong>Unicode input</strong> as follows:</p> <ul> <li><strong><abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8</strong> encoded input is supported, which is the default encoding for <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>, according to <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html#section-8.1"><abbr title="Request for Comments">RFC</abbr> 8259</a>.</li> <li><code>std::u16string</code> and <code>std::u32string</code> can be parsed, assuming <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-16 and <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-32 encoding, respectively; <code>std::wstring</code> works as well and is interpreted as <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-16 or <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-32, depending on the width of the platform's <code>wchar_t</code>. These encodings cannot be read from a <code>FILE*</code> or a <code>std::istream</code>, which carry bytes only.</li> <li>Ill-formed <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-16 or <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-32 input is rejected: a lone surrogate, a high surrogate that is not followed by its low surrogate, and a code point above <code>U+10FFFF</code> all yield a parse error. The same holds for iterators over 2- or 4-byte characters.</li> <li>Other encodings such as Latin-1 or <abbr title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr> 8859-1 are <strong>not</strong> supported and will yield parse or serialization errors.</li> <li>The library will not replace <a href="http://www.unicode.org/faq/private_use.html#nonchar1">Unicode noncharacters</a>.</li> <li>Invalid surrogates (e.g., incomplete pairs such as <code>\uDEAD</code>) will yield parse errors.</li> <li>The strings stored in the library are <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 encoded. When using the default string type (<code>std::string</code>), note that its length/size functions return the number of stored bytes rather than the number of characters or glyphs.</li> <li>When you store strings with different encodings in the library, calling <a href=../../api/basic_json/dump/ ><code>dump()</code></a> may throw an exception unless <code>json::error_handler_t::replace</code>, <code>json::error_handler_t::ignore</code>, or <code>json::error_handler_t::keep</code> are used as error handlers.</li> </ul> <p>In most cases, the parser is right to complain, because the input is not <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 encoded. This is especially true for Microsoft Windows, where Latin-1 or <abbr title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr> 8859-1 is often the standard encoding.</p> <h3 id=nul-bytes-in-the-input>NUL bytes in the input<a class=headerlink href=#nul-bytes-in-the-input title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why does <a href=../../api/basic_json/parse/ ><code>json::parse()</code></a> silently ignore part of my input?</li> <li>Why does a <code>std::string</code>/buffer with extra data after the <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr> text parse without error, while a similar-looking string with extra text does not?</li> </ul> </div> <p>A <code>'\0'</codLine truncated
 <span class=n>json</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>parse</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>std</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>string</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=s>"123"</span><span class=p>)</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>+</span><span class=w> </span><span class=sc>'\0'</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>+</span><span class=w> </span><span class=s>"true"</span><span class=p>);</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// == 123, the "true" is silently ignored too</span>
 </code></pre></div> <p>This is different from any other unexpected trailing byte, which <em>does</em> raise <a href=../exceptions/#jsonexceptionparse_error101><code>parse_error.101</code></a>:</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=n>json</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>parse</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=s>"123x"</span><span class=p>);</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// throws parse_error.101: unexpected additional data</span>
 </code></pre></div> <p>This falls out of the same convention used when no explicit input length is given at all: <code>json::parse(const char*)</code> already stops at the first NUL byte via <code>strlen()</code>, since a bare pointer has no length of its own. The library applies that same NUL-terminated-C-string convention uniformly, rather than only when a length is genuinely unavailable — so a <code>std::string</code>, iterator range, or container whose content happens to include a NUL byte is affected the same way a raw <code>const char*</code> would be.</p> <p>If your input may contain a trailing or embedded NUL that is <strong>not</strong> meant to signal the end of the <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr> text — for instance, a fixed-size, zero-padded buffer — trim it yourself before calling <code>parse()</code>, since the library will otherwise silently stop there instead of raising an error:</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=n>s</span><span class=p>.</span><span class=n>resize</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>s</span><span class=p>.</span><span class=n>find</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=sc>'\0'</span><span class=p>));</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// drop everything from the first NUL onward, if any</span>
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 <span class=n>json</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>parse</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>std</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>string</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=s>"123"</span><span class=p>)</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>+</span><span class=w> </span><span class=sc>'\0'</span><span class=p>);</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// throws parse_error.101 instead of silently returning 123</span>
 </code></pre></div> <p>This macro defaults to <code>0</code> (disabled, preserving the behavior described above) to avoid breaking existing code that may depend on it, even unknowingly; it is planned to become the default in version 4.0.0. See <a href=../../api/macros/json_strict_nul_handling/ >its documentation</a> for details, including how it also affects <code>char</code> arrays such as string literals.</p> <p>Note that this is unrelated to an <em>unescaped</em> NUL byte occurring <strong>inside</strong> a quoted <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr> string, which is a different, already-invalid case and is correctly rejected either way:</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=n>json</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>parse</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>std</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>string</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=s>"</span><span class=se>\"</span><span class=s>"</span><span class=p>)</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>+</span><span class=w> </span><span class=sc>'\0'</span><span class=w> </span><span class=o>+</span><span class=w> </span><span class=s>"</span><span class=se>\"</span><span class=s>"</span><span class=p>);</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// throws parse_error.101: control character U+0000 (NUL) must be escaped to \u0000</span>
-</code></pre></div> <h3 id=wide-string-handling>Wide string handling<a class=headerlink href=#wide-string-handling title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Question</p> <p>Why are wide strings (e.g., <code>std::wstring</code>) dumped as arrays of numbers?</p> </div> <p>As described <a href=#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters>above</a>, the library assumes <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 as encoding. To store a wide string, you need to change the encoding.</p> <div class="admonition example"> <p class=admonition-title>Example</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=cp>#include</span><span class=w> </span><span class=cpf>&lt;codecvt&gt;</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// codecvt_utf8</span>
+</code></pre></div> <h3 id=wide-string-handling>Wide string handling<a class=headerlink href=#wide-string-handling title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Question</p> <p>Why are wide strings (e.g., <code>std::wstring</code>) dumped as arrays of numbers?</p> </div> <p>As described <a href=#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters>above</a>, the library stores its strings as <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8. To store a wide string as a string, convert it to a <abbr title="Unicode Transformation Format">UTF</abbr>-8 encoded <code>std::string</code> first, as in the example below.</p> <div class="admonition example"> <p class=admonition-title>Example</p> <div class=highlight><pre><span></span><code><span class=cp>#include</span><span class=w> </span><span class=cpf>&lt;codecvt&gt;</span><span class=w> </span><span class=c1>// codecvt_utf8</span>
 <span class=cp>#include</span><span class=w> </span><span class=cpf>&lt;locale&gt;</span><span class=w>  </span><span class=c1>// wstring_convert</span>
 
 <span class=c1>// encoding function</span>
@@ -56,4 +56,4 @@
 
 <span class=w>    </span><span class=k>friend</span><span class=w> </span><span class=kt>void</span><span class=w> </span><span class=nf>to_json</span><span class=p>(</span><span class=n>nlohmann</span><span class=o>::</span><span class=n>json</span><span class=o>&amp;</span><span class=w> </span><span class=n>j</span><span class=p>,</span><span class=w> </span><span class=k>const</span><span class=w> </span><span class=n>Holder</span><span class=o>&amp;</span><span class=w> </span><span class=n>h</span><span class=p>)</span><span class=w> </span><span class=p>{</span><span class=w> </span><span class=cm>/* ... */</span><span class=w> </span><span class=p>}</span>
 <span class=p>};</span>
-</code></pre></div> <p>The <a href=../../api/macros/nlohmann_define_type_intrusive/ ><code>NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE</code></a> macros define hidden friends as well. See <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3669">#3669</a> for details.</p> <h3 id=missing-stl-function>Missing <abbr title="Standard Template Library">STL</abbr> function<a class=headerlink href=#missing-stl-function title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why do I get a compilation error <code>'to_string' is not a member of 'std'</code> (or similarly, for <code>strtod</code> or <code>strtof</code>)?</li> <li>Why does the code not compile with MinGW or Android <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr>?</li> </ul> </div> <p>This is not an issue with the code, but rather with the compiler itself. On Android, use a current <abbr title="Native Development Kit">NDK</abbr> (see above). For MinGW, please refer to <a href="http://tehsausage.com/mingw-to-string">this site</a> and <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/136">this discussion</a> for information on how to fix this bug.</p> <!-- https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/reference/tooltips/#adding-a-glossary --> <aside class=md-source-file> <span class=md-source-file__fact> <span class=md-icon title="Last update"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M21 13.1c-.1 0-.3.1-.4.2l-1 1 2.1 2.1 1-1c.2-.2.2-.6 0-.8l-1.3-1.3c-.1-.1-.2-.2-.4-.2m-1.9 1.8-6.1 6V23h2.1l6.1-6.1zM12.5 7v5.2l4 2.4-1 1L11 13V7zM11 21.9c-5.1-.5-9-4.8-9-9.9C2 6.5 6.5 2 12 2c5.3 0 9.6 4.1 10 9.3-.3-.1-.6-.2-1-.2s-.7.1-1 .2C19.6 7.2 16.2 4 12 4c-4.4 0-8 3.6-8 8 0 4.1 3.1 7.5 7.1 7.9l-.1.2z"/></svg> </span> <span class="git-revision-date-localized-plugin git-revision-date-localized-plugin-date" title="October 14, 2026 15:40:55 UTC">October 14, 2026</span> </span> </aside> </article> </div> <script>var tabs=__md_get("__tabs");if(Array.isArray(tabs))e:for(var set of document.querySelectorAll(".tabbed-set")){var labels=set.querySelector(".tabbed-labels");for(var tab of tabs)for(var label of labels.getElementsByTagName("label"))if(label.innerText.trim()===tab){var input=document.getElementById(label.htmlFor);input.checked=!0;continue e}}</script> <script>var target=document.getElementById(location.hash.slice(1));target&&target.name&&(target.checked=target.name.startsWith("__tabbed_"))</script> </div> <button type=button class="md-top md-icon" data-md-component=top hidden> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M13 20h-2V8l-5.5 5.5-1.42-1.42L12 4.16l7.92 7.92-1.42 1.42L13 8z"/></svg> Back to top </button> </main> <footer class=md-footer> <div class="md-footer-meta md-typeset"> <div class="md-footer-meta__inner md-grid"> <div class=md-copyright> <div class=md-copyright__highlight> Copyright &copy; 2013-2026 Niels Lohmann </div> </div> <div class=md-social> <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="github.com" class="md-social__link"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 512 512"><!-- Font Awesome Free 7.1.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license/free (Icons: CC BY 4.0, Fonts: SIL OFL 1.1, Code: MIT License) Copyright 2025 Fonticons, Inc.--><path d="M173.9 397.4c0 2-2.3 3.6-5.2 3.6-3.3.3-5.6-1.3-5.6-3.6 0-2 2.3-3.6 5.2-3.6 3-.3 5.6 1.3 5.6 3.6m-31.1-4.5c-.7 2 1.3 4.3 4.3 4.9 2.6 1 5.6 0 6.2-2s-1.3-4.3-4.3-5.2c-2.6-.7-5.5.3-6.2 2.3m44.2-1.7c-2.9.7-4.9 2.6-4.6 4.9.3 2 2.9 3.3 5.9 2.6 2.9-.7 4.9-2.6 4.6-4.6-.3-1.9-3-3.2-5.9-2.9M252.8 8C114.1 8 8 113.3 8 252c0 110.9 69.8 205.8 169.5 239.2 12.8 2.3 17.3-5.6 17.3-12.1 0-6.2-.3-40.4-.3-61.4 0 0-70 15-84.7-29.8 0 0-11.4-29.1-27.8-36.6 0 0-22.9-15.7 1.6-15.4 0 0 24.9 2 38.6 25.8 21.9 38.6 58.6 27.5 72.9 20.9 2.3-16 8.8-27.1 16-33.7-55.9-6.2-112.3-14.3-112.3-110.5 0-27.5 7.6-41.3 23.6-58.9-2.6-6.5-11.1-33.3 2.6-67.9 20.9-6.5 69 27 69 27 20-5.6 41.5-8.5 62.8-8.5s42.8 2.9 62.8 8.5c0 0 48.1-33.6 69-27 13.7 34.7 5.2 61.4 2.6 67.9 16 17.7 25.8 31.5 25.8 58.9 0 96.5-58.9 104.2-114.8 110.5 9.2 7.9 17 22.9 17 46.4 0 33.7-.3 75.4-.3 83.6 0 6.5 4.6 14.4 17.3 12.1C436.2 457.8 504 362.9 504 252 504 113.3 391.5 8 252.8 8M105.2 352.9c-1.3 1-1 3.3.7 5.2 1.6 1.6 3.9 2.3 5.2 1 1.3-1 1-3.3-.7-5.2-1.6-1.6-3.9-2.3-5.2-1m-10.8-8.1c-.7 1.3.3 2.9 2.3 3.9 1.6 1 3.6.7 4.3-.7.7-1.3-.3-2.9-2.3-3.9-2-.6-3.6-.3-4.3.7m32.4 35.6c-1.6 1.3-1 4.3 1.3 6.2 2.3 2.3 5.2 2.6 6.5 1 1.3-1.3.7-4.3-1.3-6.2-2.2-2.3-5.2-2.6-6.5-1m-11.4-14.7c-1.6 1-1.6 3.6 0 5.9s4.3 3.3 5.6 2.3c1.6-1.3 1.6-3.9 0-6.2-1.4-2.3-4-3.3-5.6-2"/></svg> </a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielslohmann/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="www.linkedin.com" class="md-social__link"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 448 512"><!-- Font Awesome Free 7.1.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license/free (Icons: CC BY 4.0, Fonts: SIL OFL 1.1, CLine truncated
+</code></pre></div> <p>The <a href=../../api/macros/nlohmann_define_type_intrusive/ ><code>NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_INTRUSIVE</code></a> macros define hidden friends as well. See <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3669">#3669</a> for details.</p> <h3 id=missing-stl-function>Missing <abbr title="Standard Template Library">STL</abbr> function<a class=headerlink href=#missing-stl-function title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3> <div class="admonition question"> <p class=admonition-title>Questions</p> <ul> <li>Why do I get a compilation error <code>'to_string' is not a member of 'std'</code> (or similarly, for <code>strtod</code> or <code>strtof</code>)?</li> <li>Why does the code not compile with MinGW or Android <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr>?</li> </ul> </div> <p>This is not an issue with the code, but rather with the compiler itself. On Android, use a current <abbr title="Native Development Kit">NDK</abbr> (see above). For MinGW, please refer to <a href="http://tehsausage.com/mingw-to-string">this site</a> and <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/136">this discussion</a> for information on how to fix this bug.</p> <!-- https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/reference/tooltips/#adding-a-glossary --> <aside class=md-source-file> <span class=md-source-file__fact> <span class=md-icon title="Last update"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M21 13.1c-.1 0-.3.1-.4.2l-1 1 2.1 2.1 1-1c.2-.2.2-.6 0-.8l-1.3-1.3c-.1-.1-.2-.2-.4-.2m-1.9 1.8-6.1 6V23h2.1l6.1-6.1zM12.5 7v5.2l4 2.4-1 1L11 13V7zM11 21.9c-5.1-.5-9-4.8-9-9.9C2 6.5 6.5 2 12 2c5.3 0 9.6 4.1 10 9.3-.3-.1-.6-.2-1-.2s-.7.1-1 .2C19.6 7.2 16.2 4 12 4c-4.4 0-8 3.6-8 8 0 4.1 3.1 7.5 7.1 7.9l-.1.2z"/></svg> </span> <span class="git-revision-date-localized-plugin git-revision-date-localized-plugin-date" title="October 25, 2026 05:18:07 UTC">October 25, 2026</span> </span> </aside> </article> </div> <script>var tabs=__md_get("__tabs");if(Array.isArray(tabs))e:for(var set of document.querySelectorAll(".tabbed-set")){var labels=set.querySelector(".tabbed-labels");for(var tab of tabs)for(var label of labels.getElementsByTagName("label"))if(label.innerText.trim()===tab){var input=document.getElementById(label.htmlFor);input.checked=!0;continue e}}</script> <script>var target=document.getElementById(location.hash.slice(1));target&&target.name&&(target.checked=target.name.startsWith("__tabbed_"))</script> </div> <button type=button class="md-top md-icon" data-md-component=top hidden> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M13 20h-2V8l-5.5 5.5-1.42-1.42L12 4.16l7.92 7.92-1.42 1.42L13 8z"/></svg> Back to top </button> </main> <footer class=md-footer> <div class="md-footer-meta md-typeset"> <div class="md-footer-meta__inner md-grid"> <div class=md-copyright> <div class=md-copyright__highlight> Copyright &copy; 2013-2026 Niels Lohmann </div> </div> <div class=md-social> <a href="https://github.com/nlohmann" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="github.com" class="md-social__link"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 512 512"><!-- Font Awesome Free 7.1.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license/free (Icons: CC BY 4.0, Fonts: SIL OFL 1.1, Code: MIT License) Copyright 2025 Fonticons, Inc.--><path d="M173.9 397.4c0 2-2.3 3.6-5.2 3.6-3.3.3-5.6-1.3-5.6-3.6 0-2 2.3-3.6 5.2-3.6 3-.3 5.6 1.3 5.6 3.6m-31.1-4.5c-.7 2 1.3 4.3 4.3 4.9 2.6 1 5.6 0 6.2-2s-1.3-4.3-4.3-5.2c-2.6-.7-5.5.3-6.2 2.3m44.2-1.7c-2.9.7-4.9 2.6-4.6 4.9.3 2 2.9 3.3 5.9 2.6 2.9-.7 4.9-2.6 4.6-4.6-.3-1.9-3-3.2-5.9-2.9M252.8 8C114.1 8 8 113.3 8 252c0 110.9 69.8 205.8 169.5 239.2 12.8 2.3 17.3-5.6 17.3-12.1 0-6.2-.3-40.4-.3-61.4 0 0-70 15-84.7-29.8 0 0-11.4-29.1-27.8-36.6 0 0-22.9-15.7 1.6-15.4 0 0 24.9 2 38.6 25.8 21.9 38.6 58.6 27.5 72.9 20.9 2.3-16 8.8-27.1 16-33.7-55.9-6.2-112.3-14.3-112.3-110.5 0-27.5 7.6-41.3 23.6-58.9-2.6-6.5-11.1-33.3 2.6-67.9 20.9-6.5 69 27 69 27 20-5.6 41.5-8.5 62.8-8.5s42.8 2.9 62.8 8.5c0 0 48.1-33.6 69-27 13.7 34.7 5.2 61.4 2.6 67.9 16 17.7 25.8 31.5 25.8 58.9 0 96.5-58.9 104.2-114.8 110.5 9.2 7.9 17 22.9 17 46.4 0 33.7-.3 75.4-.3 83.6 0 6.5 4.6 14.4 17.3 12.1C436.2 457.8 504 362.9 504 252 504 113.3 391.5 8 252.8 8M105.2 352.9c-1.3 1-1 3.3.7 5.2 1.6 1.6 3.9 2.3 5.2 1 1.3-1 1-3.3-.7-5.2-1.6-1.6-3.9-2.3-5.2-1m-10.8-8.1c-.7 1.3.3 2.9 2.3 3.9 1.6 1 3.6.7 4.3-.7.7-1.3-.3-2.9-2.3-3.9-2-.6-3.6-.3-4.3.7m32.4 35.6c-1.6 1.3-1 4.3 1.3 6.2 2.3 2.3 5.2 2.6 6.5 1 1.3-1.3.7-4.3-1.3-6.2-2.2-2.3-5.2-2.6-6.5-1m-11.4-14.7c-1.6 1-1.6 3.6 0 5.9s4.3 3.3 5.6 2.3c1.6-1.3 1.6-3.9 0-6.2-1.4-2.3-4-3.3-5.6-2"/></svg> </a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielslohmann/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="www.linkedin.com" class="md-social__link"> <svg xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg viewbox="0 0 448 512"><!-- Font Awesome Free 7.1.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license/free (Icons: CC BY 4.0, Fonts: SIL OFL 1.1, CLine truncated

home/faq/index.md

@@ -78,8 +78,9 @@ Questions
 
 The library supports **Unicode input** as follows:
 
-- Only **UTF-8** encoded input is supported, which is the default encoding for JSON, according to [RFC 8259](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html#section-8.1).
-- `std::u16string` and `std::u32string` can be parsed, assuming UTF-16 and UTF-32 encoding, respectively. These encodings are not supported when reading from files or other input containers.
+- **UTF-8** encoded input is supported, which is the default encoding for JSON, according to [RFC 8259](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.html#section-8.1).
+- `std::u16string` and `std::u32string` can be parsed, assuming UTF-16 and UTF-32 encoding, respectively; `std::wstring` works as well and is interpreted as UTF-16 or UTF-32, depending on the width of the platform's `wchar_t`. These encodings cannot be read from a `FILE*` or a `std::istream`, which carry bytes only.
+- Ill-formed UTF-16 or UTF-32 input is rejected: a lone surrogate, a high surrogate that is not followed by its low surrogate, and a code point above `U+10FFFF` all yield a parse error. The same holds for iterators over 2- or 4-byte characters.
 - Other encodings such as Latin-1 or ISO 8859-1 are **not** supported and will yield parse or serialization errors.
 - The library will not replace [Unicode noncharacters](http://www.unicode.org/faq/private_use.html#nonchar1).
 - Invalid surrogates (e.g., incomplete pairs such as `\uDEAD`) will yield parse errors.
@@ -142,7 +143,7 @@ Question
 
 Why are wide strings (e.g., `std::wstring`) dumped as arrays of numbers?
 
-As described [above](#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters), the library assumes UTF-8 as encoding. To store a wide string, you need to change the encoding.
+As described [above](#parse-errors-reading-non-ascii-characters), the library stores its strings as UTF-8. To store a wide string as a string, convert it to a UTF-8 encoded `std::string` first, as in the example below.
 
 Example