From ba25f9616920a5c79fe23fa81e032443a909e202 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:28:07 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Reserve the storage of an ordered_json in flatten() once

flatten() appended the entries to an ordered_map one by one, so its vector
grew by doubling and moved every entry about once in total. The number of
entries is known after a walk over the value that only counts (it needs no
path strings), so objects with a reserve() are given that capacity first.
std::map has no reserve() and is unchanged.

flatten() of an ordered_json (instructions on macOS, Linux Ir GCC 13 / Clang 18):
citm_catalog 36.8M -> 23.1M, 32.7M -> 17.1M / 31.7M -> 16.8M; twitter 20.5M ->
13.6M, 17.6M -> 10.0M / 17.0M -> 9.8M. Output is identical.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
---
 include/nlohmann/detail/json_pointer.hpp | 47 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp         | 47 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 94 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/nlohmann/detail/json_pointer.hpp b/include/nlohmann/detail/json_pointer.hpp
index d421a8e0f..5c9fd3836 100644
--- a/include/nlohmann/detail/json_pointer.hpp
+++ b/include/nlohmann/detail/json_pointer.hpp
@@ -1354,6 +1354,52 @@ class json_pointer
         obj[key] = std::forward<ValueType>(v);
     }
 
+    /// the number of entries that flattening @a value adds: its primitive
+    /// values and empty containers
+    template<typename BasicJsonType>
+    static std::size_t count_flattened(const BasicJsonType& value)
+    {
+        std::size_t count = 0;
+        std::vector<const BasicJsonType*> pending(1, &value);
+        while (!pending.empty())
+        {
+            const BasicJsonType* const v = pending.back();
+            pending.pop_back();
+            if (v->is_array() && !v->m_data.m_value.array->empty())
+            {
+                for (const auto& element : *v->m_data.m_value.array)
+                {
+                    pending.push_back(&element);
+                }
+            }
+            else if (v->is_object() && !v->m_data.m_value.object->empty())
+            {
+                for (const auto& member : *v->m_data.m_value.object)
+                {
+                    pending.push_back(&member.second);
+                }
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                ++count;
+            }
+        }
+        return count;
+    }
+
+    // Reserve the storage for @a value of objects that have a reserve(), so
+    // that it does not have to be moved while it grows
+    template<typename ObjectType, typename BasicJsonType>
+    static auto reserve_flattened(ObjectType& obj, const BasicJsonType& value, detail::priority_tag<1> /*unused*/)
+    -> decltype(obj.reserve(std::size_t {}), void())
+    {
+        obj.reserve(count_flattened(value));
+    }
+
+    template<typename ObjectType, typename BasicJsonType>
+    static void reserve_flattened(ObjectType& /*obj*/, const BasicJsonType& /*value*/, detail::priority_tag<0> /*unused*/)
+    {}
+
     /// append the decimal representation of @a i to @a out
     static void append_index(string_t& out, std::size_t i)
     {
@@ -1463,6 +1509,7 @@ class json_pointer
             }
         };
 
+        reserve_flattened(object, value, detail::priority_tag<1> {});
         enter(value);
         while (!stack.empty())
         {
diff --git a/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp b/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp
index 12846dedc..e53b6ec4c 100644
--- a/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp
+++ b/single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp
@@ -23704,6 +23704,52 @@ class json_pointer
         obj[key] = std::forward<ValueType>(v);
     }
 
+    /// the number of entries that flattening @a value adds: its primitive
+    /// values and empty containers
+    template<typename BasicJsonType>
+    static std::size_t count_flattened(const BasicJsonType& value)
+    {
+        std::size_t count = 0;
+        std::vector<const BasicJsonType*> pending(1, &value);
+        while (!pending.empty())
+        {
+            const BasicJsonType* const v = pending.back();
+            pending.pop_back();
+            if (v->is_array() && !v->m_data.m_value.array->empty())
+            {
+                for (const auto& element : *v->m_data.m_value.array)
+                {
+                    pending.push_back(&element);
+                }
+            }
+            else if (v->is_object() && !v->m_data.m_value.object->empty())
+            {
+                for (const auto& member : *v->m_data.m_value.object)
+                {
+                    pending.push_back(&member.second);
+                }
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                ++count;
+            }
+        }
+        return count;
+    }
+
+    // Reserve the storage for @a value of objects that have a reserve(), so
+    // that it does not have to be moved while it grows
+    template<typename ObjectType, typename BasicJsonType>
+    static auto reserve_flattened(ObjectType& obj, const BasicJsonType& value, detail::priority_tag<1> /*unused*/)
+    -> decltype(obj.reserve(std::size_t {}), void())
+    {
+        obj.reserve(count_flattened(value));
+    }
+
+    template<typename ObjectType, typename BasicJsonType>
+    static void reserve_flattened(ObjectType& /*obj*/, const BasicJsonType& /*value*/, detail::priority_tag<0> /*unused*/)
+    {}
+
     /// append the decimal representation of @a i to @a out
     static void append_index(string_t& out, std::size_t i)
     {
@@ -23813,6 +23859,7 @@ class json_pointer
             }
         };
 
+        reserve_flattened(object, value, detail::priority_tag<1> {});
         enter(value);
         while (!stack.empty())
         {