Files
json/docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json_view/find.md
T
Niels Lohmann 7071ced153 Address the review of the json_view object index and SIMD scan
From gregmarr's review of #5628:

- Docs and comments say that the hash index is one of the object's keys.
- object_index.hpp: conditional_static_cast for the hash, "slot" for the
  table position, no flag for a degenerate table, and a static_assert
  that the smallest indexed object is larger than the probe window.
- scan.hpp unrolls with NLOHMANN_VIEW_REPEAT_FIRST_8/SECOND_8.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
2026-10-18 13:31:46 +02:00

2.5 KiB

nlohmann::basic_json_view::find

iterator find(string_view_t key) const;
iterator find(const char* key) const;
iterator find(const string_t& key) const;

Finds a member with key key -- the first one, should the key occur more than once (see Notes on duplicate keys). If the value is not an object, or no member has this key, end() is returned.

Parameters

key (in)
key value of the element to search for

Return value

An iterator to the member with key key, or end() if there is none or the value is not an object.

Exception safety

No-throw guarantee: this function never throws exceptions.

Complexity

Linear in the number of members: as for ordered_json, members are compared one after another, in document order, stopping at the first match. Each comparison first checks the key's length -- already known from the index, without reading the key bytes -- before comparing its content. Objects with 128 or more members get a hash index of their keys while parsing, so that a lookup in them takes constant time on average.

Notes

!!! warning "Duplicate keys: the first member wins"

If the source text repeats a key, this resolves to the *first* member with it, not to the last one that
[`materialize()`](materialize.md) and `parse()` keep. See the [Notes on duplicate keys](operator[].md#notes) of
`operator[]` and [Duplicate keys](../../features/json_view.md#duplicate-keys) for the reasons and for how to get
the last value.

Unlike BasicJsonType::find, which always returns #!cpp end() for a non-object type, this also does so for a discarded view -- there is no separate "invalid" iterator to return.

Examples

??? example

The example below scans a batch of events for those that carry an optional `user_id` field, using `find()`
instead of [`operator[]`](operator[].md) (which would throw for the events that are not objects at all) or
[`contains()`](contains.md) followed by a second lookup. Events without a match are never materialized.

```cpp
--8<-- "examples/basic_json_view__find.cpp"
```

Output:

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

See also

Version history

  • Added in version 3.13.0.