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JSON Parsing Task

This task implements the JSON Specification, which is a format commonly used to demonstrate the usage of parser libraries. However, unlike many of those illustrative implementations, this task must implement the specification exactly. Namely:

  • Any JSON value (true, false, null, a number, a string, an array, or an object) may be the top-level element
  • Whitespace is allowed before or after the top-level element
  • No non-whitespace characters are allowed after the top-level element
  • Strings must only contain the allowed characters (e.g., no unescaped newlines)
  • String escapes must be converted appropriately (e.g., \n becomes a newline, \u3042 becomes あ, etc.)
  • Invalid string escapes must not be allowed
  • The integer portion of non-zero numbers must not start with 0
  • Numbers like Infinity and NaN are not allowed

The parser must not only accept valid JSON and reject invalid JSON, but it must convert a JSON object to the appropriate data structures. Some details of the specification are intentionally left without a prescribed behavior:

  • Numbers may be cast as any accurate numeric datatype (e.g., 1 may be an integer or a float, but 1.2 must always be a float)
  • Multi-sequence unicode codepoints with surrogate characters may be resolved to the original character or left as a surrogate sequence (e.g., "\ud834\udd1e" (12 characters in JSON) may be resolved to '𝄞' (1-character string) or '\ud834\udd1e' (2-character string)).