Throw type_error.321 when serializing discarded values to binary formats (#5761)

* Throw type_error.321 when serializing discarded values to binary formats

The CBOR, MessagePack, UBJSON, BJData, and BSON writers silently
skipped the payload of a value_t::discarded value nested in an array
or object, while still writing its slot in the element/member count
(and, for BSON, its entry header), producing a binary document whose
declared size does not match what was actually written.

Throw type_error.321 instead, for a discarded value anywhere in the
tree, including at the top level.

Rewritten from the original PR against the current (non-recursive
option aside) binary_writer.hpp, which has changed substantially since
this was first proposed; the out_of_range.412 MessagePack size check
and unrelated test reformatting from that PR are dropped as out of
scope here.

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

* Document and test type_error.321 for discarded binary values

Add docs for the new exception (home/exceptions.md and the Exceptions
sections of to_cbor/to_msgpack/to_ubjson/to_bjdata/to_bson) and test
coverage for a discarded value nested in an array or object, nested
deeper, and (for UBJSON/BJData) inside an optimized same-type array,
for each of CBOR, MessagePack, UBJSON, BJData, and BSON. Adjust the
three pre-existing "discarded" tests that asserted the old silent
behavior (empty/short output) to expect type_error.321 instead.

Co-authored-by: ameliabarnabyhub <312084480+ameliabarnabyhub@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Co-authored-by: ameliabarnabyhub <ameliabarnabyhub@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: ameliabarnabyhub <312084480+ameliabarnabyhub@users.noreply.github.com>
This commit is contained in:
authored and GitHub committed 2026-10-06 07:33:34 +02:00
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@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Strong guarantee: if an exception is thrown, there are no changes in the JSON va
`"subtype 70000 is too large for the MessagePack ext type (max 255)"`
- Throws [type_error.316](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptiontype_error316) if a string or object key in `j` is
not valid UTF-8 and `error_handler` is `strict`
- Throws [type_error.321](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptiontype_error321) if `j` or a value nested in it is
discarded; example: `"cannot serialize discarded value to MessagePack"`
## Complexity
@@ -108,3 +110,5 @@ Linear in the size of the JSON value `j`.
- Fixed in version 3.13.0 to serialize `number_integer_t`/`number_unsigned_t` pairs of different width correctly;
before, integers could be serialized with the wrong value if `number_integer_t` was narrower than
`number_unsigned_t`.
- Throws `type_error.321` for a discarded value since version 3.13.0; previously, a discarded value nested in an
array or object was silently skipped, producing invalid MessagePack.