Elixir:
Working with JSON

How to:

In Elixir, you can use the Jason library, a popular choice for JSON parsing and generation. First, add Jason to your project’s dependencies in mix.exs:

defp deps do
  [
    {:jason, "~> 1.3"}
  ]
end

Then, run mix deps.get to fetch the dependency.

Parsing JSON:

To convert a JSON string into Elixir data structures:

json_string = "{\"name\":\"John\", \"age\":30}"
{:ok, person} = Jason.decode(json_string)
IO.inspect(person)
# Output: %{"name" => "John", "age" => 30}

Generating JSON:

To convert an Elixir map into a JSON string:

person_map = %{"name" => "Jane", "age" => 25}
{:ok, json_string} = Jason.encode(person_map)
IO.puts(json_string)
# Output: {"age":25,"name":"Jane"}

Working with Structs:

To encode an Elixir struct, you must implement the Jason.Encoder protocol for your struct. Here’s an example:

defmodule Person do
  @derive {Jason.Encoder, only: [:name, :age]}
  defstruct name: nil, age: nil
end

person_struct = %Person{name: "Mike", age: 28}
{:ok, json_string} = Jason.encode(person_struct)
IO.puts(json_string)
# Output: {"age":28,"name":"Mike"}

This simple approach will get you started on integrating JSON processing into your Elixir applications, facilitating data interchange in various programming environments.