2. JSON Grammar

A JSON text is a sequence of tokens. The set of tokens includes six structural characters, strings, numbers, and three literal names.

A JSON text is a serialized value. Note that certain previous specifications of JSON constrained a JSON text to be an object or an array. Implementations that generate only objects or arrays where a JSON text is called for will be interoperable in the sense that all implementations will accept these as conforming JSON texts.

JSON-text = ws value ws

These are the six structural characters:

begin-array     = ws %x5B ws  ; [ left square bracket
begin-object    = ws %x7B ws  ; { left curly bracket
end-array       = ws %x5D ws  ; ] right square bracket
end-object      = ws %x7D ws  ; } right curly bracket
name-separator  = ws %x3A ws  ; : colon
value-separator = ws %x2C ws  ; , comma

Insignificant whitespace is allowed before or after any of the six structural characters.

ws = *(
        %x20 /              ; Space
        %x09 /              ; Horizontal tab
        %x0A /              ; Line feed or New line
        %x0D )              ; Carriage return

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