Documentation review (#5257)

* 📝 Fix documentation gaps for 3.13.0 release (todos 138-142)

- Todo 138: Add "Known issues" section to modules.md with compiler-specific troubleshooting (GCC redefinition, MSVC symbol export). Add pointer note to quality_assurance.md.
- Todo 139: Document CBOR/MessagePack half-precision float encoding for NaN/Infinity (0xF9/0xCA with exact byte sequences). Explain pre-3.13.0 double-precision bug mechanism without issue citations.
- Todo 140: Document CBOR negative-integer-overflow rejection (parse_error.112) for magnitudes exceeding int64_t range (already implemented in rev 1).
- Todo 141: Update version history in value.md and operator[].md with behavior-change details, removing issue citations per citation policy (prose is self-contained).
- Todo 142: Global sed replace of 3.12.x → 3.13.0 placeholder across all 20 documentation files.

Revision 2 incorporates feedback to reduce changelog-like issue citations. Only citations that add unique troubleshooting value are retained (#5103 for GCC workaround, #3970 for MSVC symbol export). "Known issues" section follows PR #5252's visual pattern (info admonition with bold-bullet format).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* 📝 Document integer type selection, type_name() invalid value, and std::optional get() fix

- number_handling.md: clarify that positive/negative integers select
  unsigned/signed storage based on the leading minus sign (todo 143).
- type_name.md: document the new "invalid" return value for corrupted
  JSON values (todo 145).
- get.md: note that get<std::optional<T>>() was unreachable in every
  configuration prior to 3.13.0 due to an internal macro-guard bug,
  unrelated to JSON_USE_IMPLICIT_CONVERSIONS's actual effect (todo 144).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann
2026-07-09 17:24:19 +02:00
committed by GitHub
parent ca91678af1
commit 521a084827
28 changed files with 91 additions and 24 deletions
@@ -66,7 +66,15 @@ see "binary" cells in the table above.
!!! info "NaN/infinity handling"
If NaN or Infinity are stored inside a JSON number, they are serialized properly. This behavior differs from the normal JSON serialization which serializes NaN or Infinity to `null`.
`NaN`, `Infinity`, and `-Infinity` are serialized as a CBOR half-precision float (type 0xF9, 3 bytes total):
`NaN` as `0xF9 0x7E 0x00`, `Infinity` as `0xF9 0x7C 0x00`, and `-Infinity` as `0xF9 0xFC 0x00`. This behavior
differs from the normal JSON serialization which serializes NaN or Infinity to `null`.
!!! note
Prior to version 3.13.0, NaN and Infinity were instead serialized as a CBOR double-precision float (type 0xFB,
9 bytes total), because the check used to select a smaller encoding compared magnitudes with NaN, which is
always `false` and caused the intended half-precision path to be skipped.
!!! info "Unused CBOR types"
@@ -160,6 +168,13 @@ The library maps CBOR types to JSON value types as follows:
- simple values (0xE0..0xF3, 0xF8)
- undefined (0xF7)
!!! warning "Negative integer overflow"
CBOR negative integers (major type 1) are decoded as `-1 - n`. If the encoded magnitude `n` is too large for the
result to fit into `number_integer_t` (`std::int64_t` by default), parsing fails with a
[`parse_error.112`](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptionparse_error112) exception rather than overflowing
silently.
!!! warning "Object keys"
CBOR allows map keys of any type, whereas JSON only allows strings as keys in object values. Therefore, CBOR maps with keys other than UTF-8 strings are rejected.
@@ -67,8 +67,15 @@ specification:
!!! info "NaN/infinity handling"
If NaN or Infinity are stored inside a JSON number, they are serialized properly in contrast to the
[dump](../../api/basic_json/dump.md) function which serializes NaN or Infinity to `null`.
`NaN`, `Infinity`, and `-Infinity` are serialized as a MessagePack float 32 (type 0xCA, 5 bytes total),
regardless of magnitude, in contrast to the [dump](../../api/basic_json/dump.md) function which serializes NaN
or Infinity to `null`.
!!! note
Prior to version 3.13.0, NaN and Infinity were instead serialized as a MessagePack float 64 (type 0xCB, 9 bytes
total), because the check used to select the smaller float 32 encoding compared magnitudes with NaN, which is
always `false` and caused the float 32 path to be skipped.
??? example
+19
View File
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ json data = json::parse(f);
It should be noted that as modules do not export macros, the `nlohmann.json` module will not export any macros.
## Exported symbols
Only the following symbols are exported from `nlohmann.json`:
- `nlohmann::adl_serializer`
@@ -38,3 +39,21 @@ Only the following symbols are exported from `nlohmann.json`:
- `nlohmann::to_string`
- `nlohmann::literals::json_literals::operator""_json`
- `nlohmann::literals::json_literals::operator""_json_pointer`
Additionally, the following `nlohmann::detail` symbols are exported, solely to work around an MSVC compilation issue
([#3970](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3970)). They are implementation details, not part of the public API,
and should not be used directly:
- `nlohmann::detail::json_sax_dom_callback_parser`
- `nlohmann::detail::unknown_size`
## Known issues
C++20 modules support is exercised in CI against current GCC and Clang on Ubuntu, and the default MSVC toolset on Windows Server 2022 — there is no documented minimum compiler version, unlike feature-test-macro-gated features such as [`JSON_HAS_RANGES`](../api/macros/json_has_ranges.md).
!!! info "Known compiler issues"
- **GCC** may emit "redefinition" errors when `#include <nlohmann/json.hpp>` appears in a module preamble together with other imports. This is an upstream GCC bug, not yet resolved as of GCC 16. Workarounds: include `nlohmann/json.hpp` before other `#include`s, use `import nlohmann.json;` instead, or upgrade GCC. ([issue #5103](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/5103))
- **MSVC** could fail with `C2039: 'json_sax_dom_callback_parser' is not a member of ... detail`; fixed by exporting the required internal symbols from `json.cppm` (see [Exported symbols](#exported-symbols) above). ([issue #3970](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3970))
If you hit a different module-related build failure, search [existing issues](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues?q=is%3Aissue+modules) before filing a new one.
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ In the default [`json`](../../api/json.md) type, numbers are stored as `#!c std:
number without loss of precision. If this is impossible (e.g., if the number is too large), the number is stored as
`#!c double`.
Positive integers are stored as `#!c std::uint64_t`, while negative integers are stored as `#!c std::int64_t`. This
distinction is determined at parse time: if the JSON number has a leading minus sign, it uses signed integer storage;
otherwise, it uses unsigned integer storage.
!!! info "Notes"
- Numbers with a decimal digit or scientific notation are always stored as `#!c double`.