yyjsonr

yyjsonr

{yyjsonr} is a fast JSON parser/serializer, which converts R data to/from JSON.

In most cases it is around 2x to 10x faster than {jsonlite} at both reading and writing JSON.

It is a wrapper for the yyjson C library (v0.8.0). yysjon is MIT licensed - see LICENSE-yyjson.txt in this package for more details.

What’s in the box

This package contains specialised functions for each type of operation (read/write/validate) and the storage location of the JSON (string/file/raw vector/connection).

The matrix of available operations and storage is shown below:

	string	file	raw	conn	options
read	read_json_str()	read_json_file()	read_json_raw()	read_json_conn()	opts_read_json()
write	write_json_str()	write_json_file()			opts_write_json()
validate	validate_json_str()	validate_json_file()

Comparison to other packages with read/write JSON

	Write JSON	Read JSON
yyjsonr	Fast!	Fast!
jsonlite	Yes	Yes
jsonify	Yes	Yes

Note: Benchmarks were run on Apple M2 Mac. See file “man/benchmark/benchmark.Rmd” for details.

Installation

You can install from GitHub with:

# install.package('remotes')
remotes::install_github('coolbutuseless/yyjsonr')

Simple usage example

library(yyjsonr)

str <- write_json_str(head(iris, 3), pretty = TRUE)
cat(str)
#> [
#>   {
#>     "Sepal.Length": 5.1,
#>     "Sepal.Width": 3.5,
#>     "Petal.Length": 1.4,
#>     "Petal.Width": 0.2,
#>     "Species": "setosa"
#>   },
#>   {
#>     "Sepal.Length": 4.9,
#>     "Sepal.Width": 3.0,
#>     "Petal.Length": 1.4,
#>     "Petal.Width": 0.2,
#>     "Species": "setosa"
#>   },
#>   {
#>     "Sepal.Length": 4.7,
#>     "Sepal.Width": 3.2,
#>     "Petal.Length": 1.3,
#>     "Petal.Width": 0.2,
#>     "Species": "setosa"
#>   }
#> ]

read_json_str(str)
#>   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#> 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa

Future

• Re-introduce NDJSON support
  • NDJSON support was removed for the initial CRAN release for the sake of my sanity.
  • See the ndjson branch of this repository
• Re-introduce GeoJSON support
  • GeoJSON support was removed for the initial CRAN release for the sake of my sanity.
  • See the geojson branch of this repository

Limitations

• Some datatypes not currently supported. Please file an issue on GitHub if these types are critical for you. Providing test cases also appreciated!:
  • Complex numbers
  • POSIXlt
  • Matrices of POSIXct / Date

Acknowledgements

• R Core for developing and maintaining the language.
• CRAN maintainers, for patiently shepherding packages onto CRAN and maintaining the repository