Support custom object/array types and improve template parameter handling - #5443
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Support custom object/array types and improve template parameter handling#5443nlohmann wants to merge 39 commits into
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…ameters The requirements that basic_json places on its eleven template parameters were only implied by how the library uses the resulting object_t, array_t, string_t, etc. Consumers had to discover them by trial and error. Add "Template Parameter Requirements" collecting them, split into what is always required and what is only required when a particular part of the API is instantiated. Notable findings that were previously undocumented: - ObjectType must provide a key_compare member type (actual_object_comparator names object_t::key_compare in both arms of a std::conditional), and its third template parameter is used as a comparator, so std::unordered_map cannot be used without a wrapper. - ArrayType must provide capacity() -- push_back(), emplace_back(), operator+=(), and operator[](size_type) call it unconditionally -- and needs random-access iterators, so std::deque and std::list do not work. - StringType needs contiguous, null-terminated data(), a one-byte value_type, and either assignability from std::to_string or an ADL int_to_string(). - NumberFloatType must be float, double, or long double for parsing and serialization; the integer types must satisfy std::is_integral. - AllocatorType must be stateless, support incomplete types, and use plain pointers. - BooleanType and the number types are union members and must be trivial. Link the new page from the basic_json overview, the types feature page, and the individual type alias pages, and correct the container examples given for ObjectType (std::unordered_map) and ArrayType (std::list), which do not work. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
detail::actual_object_comparator selected between object_t::key_compare and default_object_comparator_t with std::conditional. Both type arguments of std::conditional are named eagerly, so object_t::key_compare had to exist regardless of the condition, and the has_key_compare guard added in 3.11.0 never took effect: any ObjectType without a key_compare member type failed to compile while instantiating basic_json itself. Use detected_or_t instead, which resolves through a SFINAE partial specialization and only names object_t::key_compare when it exists. The selected type is unchanged for every object type that compiled before, so object_comparator_t -- a public member type -- keeps its meaning and ABI. has_key_compare had no other users and is removed. Add a regression test using an adapter around std::unordered_map, which has no key_compare; it fails to compile without this change. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Follow up on the template parameter requirements page: state, for every template parameter, which concrete types work and where they stop working. Each entry was verified by compiling and running a common workload (DOM access, dump, parse, CBOR/MessagePack round-trip, flatten, hash) against that instantiation. Findings worth calling out: - ObjectType no longer needs a key_compare member type, so the std::unordered_map adapter only has to restore the template argument order. A hash-ordered ObjectType works everywhere except unflatten(), which reconstructs an array only when it meets the reference token 0 before the other indices. - ArrayType: std::deque works when wrapped to add capacity(); std::list does not. - StringType: std::pmr::string and std::basic_string with a custom allocator compile for the DOM, dump, and parse, but not for the binary readers, flatten, or diff, because the library assigns std::string values to string_t and int_to_string cannot be overloaded for a type in namespace std. - NumberFloatType: long double works for dump and parse but not for the binary formats, which have no encoding for it. - BinaryType: std::vector<std::byte> supports assignment, get, and the binary formats, but neither dump nor std::hash<basic_json>. Also record the object_comparator_t fix in its version history. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
unflatten() decided between array and object by looking at the first reference
token it happened to see for a node: it started an array only when that token
was 0. With a sorted object type the token 0 always arrives first, so the
result was correct by accident; with an object type whose iteration order is
unspecified, {"/c/2":3,"/c/1":2,"/c/0":1} unflattened to an object with the
keys "0", "1", and "2" instead of an array.
Collect the pointer prefixes that have a reference token 0 among their children
before building the result, and let get_and_create() consult that set. The
outcome is now independent of the iteration order and matches, for every input,
what a sorted object type produced before: a value is restored as an array if
and only if one of its keys is 0. Iterating the flattened object in a different
order would have been simpler, but it would have changed the key order of the
result for insertion-ordered object types.
The serializer, std::hash, and the UBJSON writer converted the elements of a
binary value to an integer implicitly, which does not compile for a BinaryType
whose value type is std::byte, and which made dump() write the bytes of a
signed value type as negative numbers. Convert to std::uint8_t explicitly in
all three places, so every byte type dumps as 0..255. The default
std::vector<std::uint8_t> configuration is unaffected.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Checked against Abseil release 20250127.0 with the same workload as the other entries on the page (DOM access, dump, parse, CBOR/MessagePack/UBJSON round-trip, flatten, hash), with and without JSON_DIAGNOSTICS. absl::flat_hash_map and absl::node_hash_map work as ObjectType through an adapter that restores the template argument order and makes erase(iterator) return the following iterator, which Abseil's returns as void. The page now carries that adapter, and notes that absl::flat_hash_map does not keep references to the mapped values valid across insertions while absl::node_hash_map does. Both have a capacity() member, so JSON_DIAGNOSTICS already refreshes the parent pointers conservatively for them. absl::btree_map and absl::InlinedVector cannot be used at all: object_t and array_t are formed while basic_json is still incomplete, and both inspect their value type at class scope. std::map and std::vector are required by the standard to tolerate this, third-party containers generally are not, so the page states the constraint on its own rather than only per container. absl::InlinedVector does work as BinaryType, where it is instantiated with a complete type. absl::FixedArray and absl::Cord are not usable. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Two requirements forced users of otherwise suitable containers to write a wrapper, and neither was load-bearing. array_t::capacity() was read in push_back(), emplace_back(), operator+=(), and operator[](size_type), but set_parent() only looks at the value under JSON_DIAGNOSTICS; without diagnostics it was computed and discarded. Read it through array_capacity(), which reports unknown_size() when diagnostics are off or when the array type has no capacity() at all, and treat an unknown capacity as "the elements may have moved" so the parent pointers are refreshed conservatively. std::deque now works as ArrayType, in both builds, and capacity() is no longer named at all in a default build. Since the capacity is now only meaningful for array insertions, it moves out of set_parent() into set_parent_after_array_insert(). basic_json::erase(iterator) assigned the object's erase() return value, which requires the container to return the following iterator. Abseil's hash maps return void to avoid computing a successor the caller may not need. Detect that and compute the successor before erasing; containers that return an iterator, including the vector-backed ordered_map where a precomputed successor would be wrong, keep the existing path. Together these leave an Abseil hash map needing only an alias that restores the template argument order, and no adapter at all for std::deque. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Three places built a std::string and handed it to something expecting a string_t: the UBJSON high-precision number reader, which every binary reader instantiates, and the BSON writer's array element size calculation and write. That silently required string_t to be implicitly convertible from std::string, which std::string itself and types with a string_view conversion satisfy, but many string types do not. Construct the string_t explicitly from the data and size, which the requirements already cover. This makes boost::container::string, eastl::string, std::pmr::string, and std::basic_string with a custom allocator work as StringType, none of which could previously be used with any binary format. Add binary format coverage to the alt_string test, which had none, including a UBJSON high-precision number -- the case that goes through the reader path. BSON stays uncovered there: it additionally needs string_t::find(value_type), which alt_string does not provide. Also record which containers from Boost, Abseil, and EASTL work for each template parameter, and correct two claims: std::pmr::string is usable after this change, and tsl::ordered_map is not usable at all, because its iterators expose the mapped value as const while basic_json modifies it in place. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
ankerl::unordered_dense (map and segmented_map), phmap (flat_hash_map and node_hash_map), and robin_hood::unordered_flat_map all work as ObjectType through the same adapter as Abseil's and Boost's hash maps, which only has to restore the template argument order. phmap::btree_map and robin_hood::unordered_node_map do not: like the other btree containers they require a complete value type. Note that none of these hash maps defines key_compare, so every one of them depends on object_comparator_t falling back to default_object_comparator_t. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Folly works, with the caveat that its headers need C++20: folly::fbstring as StringType, folly::fbvector and folly::small_vector as ArrayType, folly::fbvector<std::uint8_t> as BinaryType, and folly::F14NodeMap as ObjectType through the usual argument-order adapter. folly::F14FastMap is the exception and requires a complete value type. For ArrayType, boost::container::devector, boost::container::static_vector (within its fixed capacity), and std::pmr::vector work as well. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
nlohmann::fifo_map works through the adapter that has always been documented for it, and preserves the insertion order. Restore its mention in the object order page, which was dropped together with the tsl::ordered_map one: unlike ordered_map it keeps a lookup index, so it is the insertion-ordered option without the quadratic cost. gtl::flat_hash_map and folly::sorted_vector_map work as well, the latter through an alias that drops the allocator, whose value type it disagrees on. gtl::btree_map does not, for the same reason as the other btree containers. None of the Qt containers can be used, each for its own reason: QMap has no value_type, QHash iterators yield the mapped value rather than a pair, QList has no max_size(), QByteArray spells empty() as isEmpty(), and QString is UTF-16. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Listing std::pmr::string as fully supported was an overclaim: it was only ever checked with the default memory resource, which is not what PMR is for. basic_json cannot be given an allocator or a memory resource, so a pmr string inside a value always allocates from std::pmr::get_default_resource(), and assigning an arena-backed string into a value silently drops its resource, because polymorphic_allocator does not propagate on copy construction. Passing polymorphic_allocator as AllocatorType does not compile either. Only the process-global set_default_resource() redirects these allocations. Say so, and separate the row from std::basic_string with a custom stateless allocator, which is unaffected. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The StringType section carried two 'Compatible types' tables and two copies of the reference-implementation tip. The second table was a stale copy from before the binary format string fixes and still listed std::pmr::string and std::basic_string with a custom allocator as unusable, contradicting the corrected table a few lines above it, and it dragged along the old explanation that blamed int_to_string. Drop the stale copy and put the surviving table before the notes, so the 'see below' in the std::pmr::string row points forwards. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
…erification Every claim on the page was re-checked by compiling and running it, including the rows that say a type cannot be used, which were checked to fail for the documented reason and not merely to fail. Twenty-four claims were wrong. The most consequential: the incomplete-type constraint applies to ObjectType only. object_t is instantiated inside the class definition, because it is probed for key_compare; array_t is only named there and is not instantiated until basic_json is complete. So eastl::vector, QList and QVector are not excluded by incomplete types at all -- they simply have no max_size() -- and absl::InlinedVector is excluded for a subtler reason of its own. Further corrections: ObjectType does not need erase(key), which has a fallback, but does need at(key) for UBJSON output; only == and < are used, or == and <=> under C++20, not all six; the documented adapter does not fit ankerl or robin_hood. ArrayType needs no initializer-list insert, and value_type, the (count, value) constructor and swappability are per-function, not always. BinaryType needs a range insert for CBOR indefinite-length byte strings and does not need push_back. StringType needs append(const StringType&) unconditionally, and does not need operator!= or operator== against const char*; empty(), resize(n) and reserve(n) are per-subsystem; int_to_string is needed by diff, items and std::hash rather than by JSON Pointer or flatten. BooleanType must be implicitly convertible from bool, and JSONSerializer's second parameter need not carry a default. std::pmr::string was wrong in the other direction this time: a moved-in string does keep its memory resource, and later growth allocates from it. Only copies land on the default resource. Five requirement violations are not caught at compile time rather than the two the page claimed; they are now listed together up front. Split every compatibility table into what works and what does not, as the reasons in the second half are the useful part. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Several members were required only because of how the library happened to be written, not because the functionality needs them. Dropping them widens the set of usable string and array types, and one of them was also a performance problem. string_t: - c_str() is gone. Every call site already knew the length and passed it along, so data() is enough. The one place that did not, the diagnostics path in exceptions.hpp, now builds the token from data() and size(), which also stops it from truncating keys that contain a null byte. - back() is gone; the serializer indexes the last character instead. - find(str, pos), replace(), and substr() are gone. escape() and unescape() rebuilt the string with one replace() per escaped character, which moves the tail every time: escaping a string of n characters that all need escaping cost O(n^2). Both now scan with find_first_of() -- a member the pointer parser already required -- and append whole runs, so the common case is one search and one copy. Escaping 64000 tildes drops from 717 ms to 20 ms; a string with nothing to escape gets faster too (8.4 ms to 5.8 ms), because the scan is still a single memchr per pass. json_pointer::split() takes its reference tokens with the (const char*, size_type) constructor rather than substr(). - json_pointer::to_string() accumulates with concat<string_t> instead of letting concat default to std::string and converting afterwards, so streaming a json_pointer no longer requires string_t to be assignable from a std::string. array_t: - at(size_type) is gone. basic_json::at(size_type) checked the index by calling array_t::at() and translating std::out_of_range, which also required the array type to throw that exact exception. It now compares against size() and uses operator[]. The thrown exception, its message, and the behaviour under JSON_NOEXCEPTION are unchanged. The BSON writer wrote the terminating null byte out of the string's own buffer (size() + 1). It now writes the byte itself, so string_t::data() need not be null-terminated for to_bson(). The tests pin the reduced API: alt_string loses the five dropped members and gains coverage of the escaping paths, and a std::vector whose at() is hidden is used as an ArrayType. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Drop c_str(), back(), find(str, pos), replace(), and substr() from the StringType requirements and at(size_type) from the ArrayType ones, and note the string assignment the JSON pointer code performs. Streaming a json_pointer no longer needs assignability from a std::string. Add the non-null-terminated data() to the list of violations that are not diagnosed at compile time -- it was described in the StringType section but missing from the summary at the top -- and correct the QString row, which no longer fails for the c_str() it lacks. JSON_CATCH_USER no longer wraps a catch of std::out_of_range: the last one went away with array_t::at(). Describe what the library actually catches. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
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MSVC rejects char(0xFF) with C4310 (cast truncates constant value), which the Windows workflow treats as an error. The character literals carry the same byte values without a narrowing cast. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
object_t is probed for key_compare inside the definition of basic_json, so it is instantiated while basic_json is still incomplete. Whether a hash map survives that depends on the standard library: libstdc++ 9 needs the size of the mapped type to instantiate std::unordered_map's node type and rejects the adapter, which broke the GCC 9 builds. The test now derives its no-key_compare object type from std::map -- which does cope -- and shadows the inherited key_compare member type with an entity that is not a type, so the library's probe finds none, exactly as for a hash map. The unflatten() order-independence checks in unit-json_pointer already cover the behaviour that the unordered object type was there for. The limitation is documented for std::unordered_map. Also address two Clang-Tidy findings the earlier commits introduced: erase_from_object() declares its iterator with auto, and at(size_type) checks the type first and then falls through to the return instead of throwing from an else branch. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Building the token from data() and size() kept an embedded null byte in the key, and since what() hands out a C string, that truncated the whole message rather than just the key: to_bson() on a key containing U+0000 reported "[json.exception.out_of_range.409] (/en" instead of the full explanation. This broke test-bson under JSON_DIAGNOSTICS. Constructing from data() alone stops at the first null byte, which is what c_str() did before, so the message is unchanged -- without requiring string_t to provide c_str(). Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
JSON_DIAGNOSTIC_POSITIONS adds the byte range of the value to the exception message, which a parsed value has and an in-memory one does not, so the two message checks failed in that configuration. Build the array in memory instead of parsing it; the test is about at(size_type) not needing array_t::at(), and the byte range is beside the point. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The two sections added to unit-regression2.cpp brought a third full
basic_json instantiation into a translation unit that was already large.
With Clang on MinGW that pushed the object over the reach of a 32-bit
relocation and test-regression2_cpp20.exe failed to link:
relocation truncated to fit: IMAGE_REL_AMD64_REL32 against `.rdata'
unit-regression2.cpp is restored to exactly what it was before, and the
coverage moves to unit-custom-binary-type.cpp, next to the object and array
type tests it belongs with. The signed value type is now also covered in
C++11, where std::byte is not available.
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
iter_impl declared its defaulted move operations noexcept. The exception
specification a defaulted function gets implicitly follows from its members,
here internal_iterator, which holds the object and array iterators. libstdc++
gives std::deque's iterator a user-provided copy constructor without noexcept
before version 11, so the implicit specification is noexcept(false) and does
not match the declared one. That deletes the function -- and with g++ 4.8,
which predates CWG 1778, it is an error outright:
error: function 'iter_impl<basic_json<std::map, std::deque> >::iter_impl(
iter_impl&&)' defaulted on its first declaration with an
exception-specification that differs from the implicit declaration
So std::deque, which this branch documents as a usable array type, could not
be used with an older standard library. Leaving the specification to be
computed cannot mismatch; iteration_proxy_value already spells out the same
condition next door.
The default configuration is unaffected: json::iterator, json::const_iterator
and ordered_json::iterator stay nothrow move constructible and move
assignable, which the test now checks so it cannot regress unnoticed.
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Both come from instantiating basic_json with containers other than the default ones, and neither shows up with the Clang-Tidy version available outside CI: - insert(const_iterator, basic_json&&) forwards its by-value iterator to the const-reference overload. performance-unnecessary-value-param asks for the copy to be a move; it only fires for an iterator that is not trivially copyable, as std::deque's is not. The NOLINT on the function does not cover it, because the finding is reported where the parameter is used rather than where it is declared. Move it, which is what the check asks for and is a (very small) improvement in its own right. - cppcoreguidelines-use-enum-class rejects the unnamed enum that shadowed the inherited key_compare member type. An enum class would not do, since it declares a type of that name and the probe would find it again; a member function declaration hides the name just as well. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The test pinned that nlohmann::json's iterators stay nothrow movable after iter_impl's defaulted move operations lost their declared noexcept. That is not a property of the library, though: the exception specification is now computed from the container iterators, so it holds only for standard library implementations whose iterators are themselves nothrow movable. MSVC's checked iterators before VS2017 are not -- _Iterator_base12 registers the iterator with the container's debug proxy in a copy constructor that carries no noexcept -- so the assertions fail on a Visual Studio 2015 debug build, which is the one debug configuration in the AppVeyor matrix and has no counterpart in the GitHub Actions matrix. Assert what the change actually guarantees instead: the iterators are nothrow movable exactly when the object and array iterators they are built from are. That still pins the default configuration against a silent regression, and it is true whatever the standard library provides. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
erase_from_object() distinguished its two overloads with a decltype of a member call written inline in a default template argument. Every other detection in the library goes through the detector machinery in detected.hpp instead -- has_erase_with_key_type is the same question about the same member function -- and the inline form is the one shape older compilers are least reliable about. Express it the same way: detect_erase_with_iterator plus is_detected_exact, both of which the library already relies on elsewhere. No behaviour changes. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The three container types in the new tests inherited every constructor of their base with using Base::Base. That asks for more than the test needs: the library builds an object or an array by default construction, by copy or move, and -- when converting between two basic_json types or from an initializer list -- from an iterator range. Declaring those directly makes the requirement visible in the test, and keeps object types out of a corner where a compiler has to declare std::map's whole constructor set for a derived class while basic_json is still incomplete. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
AppVeyor is the only CI that builds MSVC 2015 and 2017, and it has now rejected three heads of this branch. Its build log is not reachable from where this is being worked on, so the verdict is a single bit and the cause has to be narrowed down by bisection. Everything else stays: the library changes, the reduced alt_string, and the unflatten() tests. If AppVeyor passes with these three translation units disabled, the cause is one of the six basic_json instantiations they add; if it fails, it is in the library. Either way this commit is reverted. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Clang-Tidy's readability-avoid-unconditional-preprocessor-if rejects a literal #if 0. Use a macro that is never defined instead, which the check does not look at. Still temporary, and reverted together with the previous commit. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
gregmarr
reviewed
Aug 31, 2026
AppVeyor passed with all three new translation units disabled, so the library changes, the reduced alt_string, and the unflatten() tests are fine on MSVC 2015 and 2017; the cause is one of the six basic_json instantiations the new tests add. Bring back two of the three. If AppVeyor passes again, the cause is in unit-custom-object-type.cpp, which is the one still disabled; if it fails, it is in one of these two and needs one more split. Still temporary. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Both were on the list of requirements that are not caught at compile time and corrupt values rather than failing, and both are a plain size comparison: - A BinaryType whose value_type is wider than one byte, which the readers and writers reinterpret as raw bytes anyway. - A NumberUnsignedType too narrow to hold the absolute value of every NumberIntegerType value, which makes basic_json(INT64_MIN).dump() yield -0 for std::int64_t with std::uint32_t. Neither static_assert rejects a configuration that worked before: both only fire where the result was already wrong. Also add the two comments the review asked for, in write_bson_string() and calc_bson_array_size(), matching the ones their counterparts already carry. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Every table in the page is reformatted so each column is exactly as wide as its widest cell, which is what the review asked for in a dozen places: the separator rows that ran two dashes long, the stray spaces, and the columns padded well past their content. The row listing six containers that require a complete mapped type is split in two so that one cell no longer sets the width of the whole table. Content changes: NumberUnsignedType is described as any unsigned integer type at least as wide as NumberIntegerType rather than any unsigned integer type; the two requirements that are now static_asserts move out of the list of violations that are not caught at compile time; and the two places that require a non-const operator[] say why data() will not do (std::string has no non-const data() before C++17). Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The previous head touched only docs/, which AppVeyor's only_commits filter skips, so it produced no build and no status at all -- the pull request looked green without ever having been built on MSVC 2015 or 2017. Swap the guards instead of repeating that step: unit-custom-object-type.cpp is enabled and the array and binary translation units are disabled. AppVeyor already passed with all three disabled, so a failure here pins the cause on no_key_compare_json or void_erase_json, and a pass pins it on the array or binary file. Still temporary. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
AppVeyor failed with only unit-custom-object-type.cpp enabled and passed with all three new translation units disabled, so the cause is one of the two object types in this file and not the array or binary ones. Guard out void_erase_map and leave no_key_compare_map, which separates the two constructs under suspicion: shadowing the inherited key_compare member type with an entity that is not a type, and hiding the inherited erase with a void-returning overload. A failure here points at the first, a pass at the second. Still temporary. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The "object type without key_compare" test failed on AppVeyor's MSVC 2017 jobs (/std:c++17): its no_key_compare_map derived publicly from std::map and shadowed the inherited key_compare type with a same-named member function, relying on ordinary member hiding to make key_compare unreachable as a type for the library's detection trait. MSVC 2017 does not honor that hiding for a typename-qualified lookup performed from outside the class and still resolves key_compare to the base's comparator type, so object_comparator_t incorrectly picked it up instead of falling back to default_object_comparator_t. Wrapping a std::map by composition instead removes the base class entirely, so there is no key_compare to find under any lookup rule, on any compiler. Also drops the now-unneeded JSON_BISECT_CUSTOM_CONTAINER_TESTS guard left over from narrowing this down: the void_erase_map test in the same file was never the cause and is re-enabled unconditionally. Verified locally with clang++ and g++ under C++17 and C++20. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
unit-custom-array-type.cpp and unit-custom-binary-type.cpp were still guarded behind JSON_BISECT_CUSTOM_CONTAINER_TESTS from bisecting the AppVeyor failure fixed in 7c39f32, which was unrelated to either file. The macro was never defined, so none of these tests actually ran in CI. Verified locally with clang++ and g++ under C++17 and C++20 before removing the guards. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
🔴 Amalgamation check failed! 🔴The source code has not been amalgamated and/or formatted correctly. 📎 A ready-to-apply patch is attached to the failed workflow run as the git apply amalgamation.patchThis does not require installing astyle yourself. |
The one-line function bodies in the composition-based no_key_compare_map (7c39f32) do not match the project's Allman brace style, which the ci_test_amalgamation job enforces with astyle. Reformatted with the pinned astyle 3.4.13; no functional change. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
…te parameters Each of ObjectType, ArrayType, StringType, and BinaryType now links to a minimal, self-contained header (docs/mkdocs/docs/examples/custom_*_type.hpp) that wraps the corresponding standard container by composition and satisfies every "Always required" member listed on that page. Unlike the prose requirement lists, these are real code: each header has a companion .cpp that instantiates a basic_json specialization with it and is compiled and run by the existing ci_test_examples check (docs/Makefile's check_output_portable), so the reference implementations cannot silently drift from what the library actually requires. The .output files were generated with that same target. StringType's existing pointer to tests/src/unit-alt-string.cpp's alt_string is kept alongside the new header as a more thorough, battle-tested example. Verified locally: astyle (pinned 3.4.13, project .astylerc) on the new files; clang++/g++ under C++11/17/20 for each example against the amalgamated header; `make check_output_portable` in docs/; `mkdocs build --strict` and scripts/check_structure.py for the page itself. Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
The GCC C++20 job builds with -Wnoexcept and -Werror, and the standard
library takes noexcept(c.begin()) and noexcept(c.end()) in ranges_base.h and
range_access.h. Forwarding to std::map without repeating its noexcept made
those expressions false, which the warning reports as an error:
error: noexcept-expression evaluates to 'false' because of a call to
no_key_compare_map<...>::begin() [-Werror=noexcept]
note: but ... does not throw; perhaps it should be declared 'noexcept'
Give the accessors the exception specification of what they forward to.
std::map declares begin, end, cbegin, cend, empty, size, max_size, and clear
noexcept, so the wrapper does too. swap is left alone: std::map's is only
conditionally noexcept, and nothing asks for it.
void_erase_map is unaffected because it still derives from std::map and
inherits accessors that already carry the specification.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
ci_test_gcc builds with -Weffc++, which asks for data to be initialized in a
member initialization list; a defaulted default constructor does not do that:
error: 'no_key_compare_map<...>::data' should be initialized in the member
initialization list [-Werror=effc++]
Writing the constructor out satisfies that but drops the exception
specification the defaulted one carried, which -Wnoexcept then objects to
where the standard library takes noexcept(construct(...)). Declare it the way
the defaulted constructor was: noexcept when the wrapped map's default
constructor is.
This is the cost of composition -- inheritance carried std::map's exception
specifications and initialization for free, and forwarding by hand has to
restate them.
Checked with the repository's own GCC warning set from cmake/gcc_flags.cmake,
all 346 flags, at C++11, C++17 and C++20: no diagnostics for this file, nor
for the two custom container translation units that were disabled while the
MSVC failure was narrowed down and are built again now.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Clang-Tidy rejects a swap that is not:
error: swap functions should be marked noexcept
[cppcoreguidelines-noexcept-swap,performance-noexcept-swap]
It was left unmarked on the grounds that std::map::swap is only
conditionally noexcept, so an unconditional promise would be wrong for a
comparator or allocator that can throw while swapping. Both concerns are met
by taking the specification from the wrapped map rather than asserting one:
noexcept(noexcept(data.swap(other.data))). Clang-Tidy accepts that, and no
NOLINT is needed.
Last in the series of specifications that inheritance used to supply and
composition has to write out by hand.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
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Description
This PR documents the implicit requirements
basic_jsonplaces on its eleven template parameters, fixes the places where those requirements were stricter than they needed to be, and drops the ones the library does not actually need.Key Changes
Custom
ObjectTypesupportactual_object_comparatorusedstd::conditional, which eagerly instantiates both branches, so any object type without akey_comparemember failed to compile. It now usesdetected_or_t. This was the single blocker for every hash map — none of them defineskey_compare.erase_from_object()handles object types whoseerase(iterator)returnsvoid(Abseil,phmap,gtl,ankerl::unordered_dense); the successor iterator is computed before erasing.erase(key)is now optional: without it the library falls back tofind(key)pluserase(iterator).Custom
ArrayTypesupporthas_capacitytrait and anarray_capacity()pair of overloads. Array types withoutcapacity()(for instancestd::deque) are handled conservatively underJSON_DIAGNOSTICSinstead of failing to compile.at(size_type)is no longer required:basic_json::at(size_type)checks the index itself and usesoperator[]. This also removes the hidden requirement that the array type throwstd::out_of_range. The thrown exception, its message, and the behaviour underJSON_NOEXCEPTIONare unchanged.Binary type fixes
std::uint8_twhen hashing and when writing UBJSON, so binary types whosevalue_typeis not an integer (std::byte,char) work indump(),std::hash, and the binary writers.JSON pointer
unflatten()fixunflatten()depended on the iteration order of the flattened object, so it produced wrong results with an unorderedObjectType. Array parents are now collected in a pre-pass, which keeps the previous semantics exactly and no longer depends on order.Reduced
string_trequirementsc_str()andback()are gone; every call site already knew the length, and the one that did not — theJSON_DIAGNOSTICSkey path — usesdata(), which the library requires to be null-terminated anyway.find(str, pos),replace(), andsubstr()are gone. RFC 6901 escaping rebuilt the string with onereplace()per escaped character, which moves the tail every time — O(n²). Bothescape()andunescape()now scan withfind_first_of()and append whole runs. Escaping 64000 tildes drops from 717 ms to 20 ms; a string with nothing to escape gets faster too (8.4 ms → 5.8 ms).json_pointer::to_string()accumulates withdetail::concat<string_t>instead of lettingconcatdefault tostd::stringand converting afterwards, so streaming ajson_pointerno longer requiresstring_tto be assignable from astd::string(this also unblocked several third-party string types).Documentation
features/types/template_parameters.mdcovering all eleven parameters: what is always required, what only particular API functions require, which concrete types are compatible, which are not and why. Every claim was checked by compiling and running against Boost 1.83, Abseil 20250127.0, Folly, EASTL 3.21,ankerl::unordered_dense,phmap,gtl,robin_hood,tsl::ordered_map, and Qt 6 — not by reading headers.basic_jsonis still incomplete — which rules outstd::unordered_mapon libstdc++ 9.object_order.mdno longer recommendstsl::ordered_map, whose iterators expose the mapped value asconst.JSON_CATCH_USERno longer wraps a catch ofstd::out_of_range; its documentation describes what the library actually catches.Testing
unit-custom-object-type.cpp: object types withoutkey_compareand object types whoseerase(iterator)returnsvoid.unit-custom-array-type.cpp:std::dequeasArrayType, and astd::vectorwhoseat()is hidden.unit-custom-binary-type.cpp: dump, hash, and the binary formats for binary types overcharand overstd::byte.unit-alt-string.cpp:alt_stringloses the five dropped members, and gains coverage of the binary formats and of the RFC 6901 escaping paths.unit-json_pointer.cpp:unflatten()independent of key order.Checklist
single_include/nlohmann/json.hppupdated)https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E