Fix discussion #4209: custom BinaryType direct assignment and extraction

When a custom BinaryType is configured (other than the default std::vector<uint8_t>),
users can now:
1. Assign values of that type directly to create binary values (not arrays)
2. Extract binary values back to that type with get<>()
3. Extract arrays to that type (for backward compatibility)

Implementation:
- Add is_compatible_binary_type trait to centralize SFINAE condition
- Update to_json to accept custom BinaryType values directly
- Update from_json to handle both binary and array inputs for custom BinaryType
- Add #include <vector> with IWYU comment to from_json.hpp
- Add comprehensive tests for assignment and array extraction
- Update binary_t documentation with example

This is purely additive and invisible to the default nlohmann::json alias, which
continues to treat std::vector<uint8_t> as arrays.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann
2026-07-10 19:43:13 +02:00
parent 6ba332c7df
commit c37d96115d
6 changed files with 142 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -51,6 +51,38 @@ represent a byte array in modern C++.
The default values for `BinaryType` is `#!cpp std::vector<std::uint8_t>`.
#### Custom BinaryType behavior
When a custom `BinaryType` is configured (other than the default `#!cpp std::vector<std::uint8_t>`), you can assign
values of that type directly to a `basic_json` instance, and they will automatically be recognized as binary values
rather than arrays:
```cpp
using custom_json = nlohmann::basic_json<
nlohmann::ordered_map, // ObjectType
std::vector, // ArrayType
std::string, // StringType
bool, // BooleanType
std::int64_t, // NumberIntegerType
std::uint64_t, // NumberUnsignedType
double, // NumberFloatType
std::allocator, // AllocatorType
nlohmann::adl_serializer,
std::vector<std::byte> // Custom BinaryType
>;
std::vector<std::byte> data{std::byte{1}, std::byte{2}, std::byte{3}};
custom_json j = data; // Creates a binary value, not an array
assert(j.is_binary());
// Round-tripping works seamlessly
auto extracted = j.get<std::vector<std::byte>>();
assert(extracted == data);
```
This automatic type detection is a convenience feature that only applies to custom (non-default) `BinaryType` configurations.
The default `nlohmann::json` continues to treat `#!cpp std::vector<std::uint8_t>` as arrays for backward compatibility.
#### Storage
Binary Arrays are stored as pointers in a `basic_json` type. That is, for any access to array values, a pointer of the