json/docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json_document/read.md

nlohmann::basic_json_document::read

template<typename InputType>
void read(InputType&& input,
         const bool allow_exceptions = true,
         const bool ignore_comments = false,
         const bool ignore_trailing_commas = false);

(Re-)parses input into #!cpp *this, discarding the document's previous value and reusing its memory (the node index, the decoded-string buffer, and, if applicable, the owned copy of the text) rather than allocating a fresh document. parse() is implemented in terms of this function, applied to a default-constructed document.

Template parameters

InputType

A compatible input; see parse.

Parameters

input (in)

Input to parse from.

allow_exceptions (in)

whether to throw exceptions in case of a parse error (optional, #!cpp true by default)

ignore_comments (in)

whether comments should be ignored and treated like whitespace (#!cpp true) or yield a parse error (#!cpp false); (optional, #!cpp false by default)

ignore_trailing_commas (in)

whether trailing commas in arrays or objects should be ignored and treated like whitespace (#!cpp true) or yield a parse error (#!cpp false); (optional, #!cpp false by default)

Exceptions

Same as parse.

Complexity

Linear in the length of the input.

Notes

Every view taken from #!cpp *this before the call — including the previous root() — is invalidated, whether or not the new parse succeeds; take fresh views from root() afterward.

!!! warning "input must not point into the document itself"

`read()` releases the document's previous text, its decoded strings, and (for an editable document) its edits
*before* it parses `input`. An `input` that is, or points into, any of them violates a precondition: it may seem to
work, parse empty or garbled text, be reported by a sanitizer, or read freed memory (undefined behavior).

This applies to every `string_view` obtained from the document whose characters live in memory that `read()`
releases:

- [`source()`](source.md) of a document that owns its text;
- [`get_string()`](../basic_json_view/get_string.md) (also as `get<string_view_t>()` or a `string_view` member of a
  decoded struct) of a string with escapes, of a string of a document that owns its text, and of an edited string;
- [`number_token()`](../basic_json_view/number_token.md) of a number of a document that owns its text, and of a
  number written by an edit;
- the key of an object member (`key()`) if it has escapes, was written by an edit, or the document owns its text.

It does not apply to a text that the caller owns and the document borrows, nor to the strings, keys, and tokens that
are read from such a text unchanged, nor to the decoded strings of a borrowed [image](load.md), which live in the
caller's image: `read()` never touches them. To parse JSON that a document holds in a string of its own (for
example, JSON embedded in a string value), copy the string first, for example with
`#!cpp std::string inner(doc.root()["payload"].get_string()); doc.read(inner);`.

A debug build (one without `NDEBUG`) checks this with `assert()`: an `input` in the document's text, decoded
strings, or image, or in the most recent buffer of strings written by edits, ends the program. (Strings written
by earlier edits are not covered.) A release build does not check, to keep the cost of reusing a document at a
minimum. The check uses `assert()` directly, not [`JSON_ASSERT`](../macros/json_assert.md), which `json.hpp`
undefines at its end.

input is borrowed or owned by the same rules as parse(); a document can borrow on one call and own on the next, since ownership is decided freshly each time. An input that is copied (see the table in parse()) is written into the document's previous owned copy, reusing its memory; a moved-in #!cpp std::string replaces it.

Reusing a document matters most for large inputs: the operating system provides the memory of a fresh node index one page at a time, and every page costs a page fault the first time it is written. On x86-64 Linux (4 KiB pages), parsing a 55 MB document into a reused document took about 40 % less time than parsing it into a fresh one. Programs that parse many documents of similar size should therefore keep one document and call read().

An integer argument that is not a #!cpp bool where the flags are expected, such as #!cpp read(ptr, len), does not compile; see parse.

Examples

??? example

The example below parses a sequence of messages into the same document, reusing its memory instead of allocating
a new document for each one.

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

Output:

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

See also

• parse - deserialize from a compatible input
• root - the view of the root value
• load - read a document from an image instead of parsing JSON text
• Zero-copy JSON views - reusing a document and what it invalidates

Version history

• Added in version 3.13.0.