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json/docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json/array_t.md
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Niels Lohmann 63c10a51fc Review and extend the documentation, and check it in CI (#5638)
* Review and extend the documentation, and check it in CI

A review of all documentation pages found factual errors, dead links,
missing cross-references, and gaps in examples. This fixes them and adds
checks so the same problems are caught automatically.

Fixes:
- wrong signatures and version histories (operator!= C++20 member,
  binary() subtype type, get<PointerType>(), JSON_NO_THREAD_LOCAL, ...)
- stale descriptions (number parsing since #5283, UBJSON table, SAX
  example that no longer compiled, tsl::ordered_map advice)
- dead internal and external links; repology.org badges (the domain is
  suspended) replaced by badges that query the registries directly
- deprecation notes link the migration guide; the guide itself fixed

Additions:
- "See also" sections, cross-references, 25 runnable examples, 12
  Mermaid diagrams, new API pages for json_pointer::operator<=> and
  byte_container_with_subtype::operator==/!=
- landing page, guides for untrusted input and performance
- "unreleased" badge after versions newer than the latest release

Checks:
- strict documentation build (broken links/anchors fail it); CI and
  the publish workflow fetch the full history the build needs
- weekly external link check, Mermaid syntax check in CI
- check_structure.py: example titles, heading levels, alt texts,
  header links, docset index coverage; its unused-example check works
  again
- all examples produce the same output on every platform

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

* Keep the customer links that could not be fixed

A dead link on the customers page is still the evidence of where the
use of the library was documented. Keep the original URLs of the entries
without a working replacement (Marne, Cisco Webex Desk Camera, Philips
Hue, CyberArk) and exclude exactly these URLs from the link check.

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

* Correct the duplicate-key recipe's claim about SAX positions

The SAX interface's key() receives no position either; only parse_error()
does. Also note that the recipe does not report the path to the repeated
key (see discussion #5085).

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

* Say the library is available as a single header and mention json_fwd.hpp

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

* Correct documentation errors found while hunting for bugs

- patch/patch_inplace: list the JSON pointer errors parse_error.106-109
  and out_of_range.402/404, and quote the actual parse_error.105 message.
- unflatten: list parse_error.106/107/108 and out_of_range.404.
- to_bson: list out_of_range.415 (binary subtype above 255) and note
  that 412 and 415 are new in 3.13.0.
- to_string: state that string_t must be convertible to std::string, also
  in the StringType requirements table.
- JSON Lines: a `while (input >> j)` loop also throws after the last value
  for concatenated JSON values; show a loop that works for both.
- BON8: a string gets 0xFF only if nothing follows it in the message; a
  string at the end of an array or object is ended by 0xFE.
- custom_string_type.hpp: add operator+=(char), which the "Always
  required" list asks for (json_pointer::to_string, flatten, unflatten,
  and diff did not compile), and an ADL int_to_string for diff and items.

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

* Cache the release headers with functools.lru_cache

Codacy (Pylint) flagged the mutable default argument that header() used
as its cache. functools.lru_cache keeps the same memoization without it.
The script's output is unchanged.

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

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
2026-10-02 11:32:15 +02:00

2.4 KiB

nlohmann::basic_json::array_t

using array_t = ArrayType<basic_json, AllocatorType<basic_json>>;

The type used to store JSON arrays.

RFC 8259 describes JSON arrays as follows:

An array is an ordered sequence of zero or more values.

To store objects in C++, a type is defined by the template parameters explained below.

Template parameters

ArrayType
container type to store arrays. It must be a vector-like container: the library uses operator[], at(), and resize(), and requires random-access iterators. #!cpp std::vector and #!cpp std::deque qualify; #!cpp std::list does not. See Template Parameter Requirements for the full list of requirements.
AllocatorType
the allocator to use for objects (e.g., std::allocator)

Notes

Default type

With the default values for ArrayType (std::vector) and AllocatorType (std::allocator), the default value for array_t is:

std::vector<
  basic_json, // value_type
  std::allocator<basic_json> // allocator_type
>

Limits

RFC 8259 specifies:

An implementation may set limits on the maximum depth of nesting.

In this class, the array's limit of nesting is not explicitly constrained. However, a maximum depth of nesting may be introduced by the compiler or runtime environment. A theoretical limit can be queried by calling the max_size function of a JSON array.

Storage

Arrays are stored as pointers in a basic_json type. That is, for any access to array values, a pointer of type #!cpp array_t* must be dereferenced.

Examples

??? example

The following code shows that `array_t` is by default, a typedef to `#!cpp std::vector<nlohmann::json>`.
 
```cpp
--8<-- "examples/array_t.cpp"
```

Output:

```json
--8<-- "examples/array_t.output"
```

See also

  • object_t the type used to store JSON objects
  • binary_t the type used to store binary values
  • is_array checks whether the JSON value is an array
  • max_size returns the maximum possible number of elements

Version history

  • Added in version 1.0.0.
  • Made capacity() optional, so that array types such as #!cpp std::deque can be used, in version 3.13.0.