Converting To/From Other Formats

Converting Internet Object to and from JSON and other formats.

Internet Object interoperates with common data formats. This page summarizes how data maps in each direction. For the JSON specifics, see JSON Compatibility.

JSON

• JSON → IO — direct: a JSON object/array is valid Internet Object data. Optionally lift repeated keys into a schema to shrink collections.

• IO → JSON — direct for the common types; lossy for decimal, bigint, datetime, binary, and NaN/Inf (see JSON Compatibility).

CSV

• CSV → IO — a header row maps to a schema; each data row becomes a collection record:

  # CSV:  name,age,active
  #       John,30,true
  name: string, age: int, active: bool
  ---
  ~ John, 30, true

• IO → CSV — flat collections export cleanly; nested objects/arrays must be flattened or encoded, since CSV has no nesting.

YAML

YAML and Internet Object both support nesting and comments. Conversion is straightforward for scalars, maps, and sequences; Internet Object adds schema and validation that YAML lacks, and its richer scalar types (decimal, bigint, datetime, binary) map to YAML scalars.

General guidance

• Converting into Internet Object is a good time to add a schema and tighten types.

• Converting out may be lossy for the precise types above — keep the canonical copy in Internet Object when exactness matters.

See Also

• JSON Compatibility · Why Internet Object?