fast-json-stringify

fast-json-stringify

fast-json-stringify is significantly faster than JSON.stringify() for small payloads. Its performance advantage shrinks as your payload grows. It pairs well with flatstr, which triggers a V8 optimization that improves performance when eventually converting the string to a Buffer.

Benchmarks

• Machine: EX41S-SSD, Intel Core i7, 4Ghz, 64GB RAM, 4C/8T, SSD.
• Node.js v10.15.2

FJS creation x 8,951 ops/sec ±0.51% (92 runs sampled)

JSON.stringify array x 5,146 ops/sec ±0.32% (97 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify array x 8,402 ops/sec ±0.62% (95 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify-uglified array x 8,474 ops/sec ±0.49% (93 runs sampled)

JSON.stringify long string x 13,061 ops/sec ±0.25% (98 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify long string x 13,059 ops/sec ±0.21% (98 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify-uglified long string x 13,099 ops/sec ±0.14% (98 runs sampled)

JSON.stringify short string x 6,295,988 ops/sec ±0.28% (98 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify short string x 43,335,575 ops/sec ±1.24% (86 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify-uglified short string x 40,042,871 ops/sec ±1.38% (93 runs sampled)

JSON.stringify obj x 2,557,026 ops/sec ±0.20% (97 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify obj x 9,001,890 ops/sec ±0.48% (90 runs sampled)
fast-json-stringify-uglified obj x 9,073,607 ops/sec ±0.41% (94 runs sampled)

Table of contents:

• Example
• API
• fastJsonStringify
• Specific use cases
• Required
• Missing fields
• Pattern Properties
• Additional Properties
• AnyOf
• Reuse - $ref
• Long integers
• Uglify
• Nullable
• Caveat
• Acknowledgements
• License

Example

const fastJson = require('fast-json-stringify')
const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    firstName: {
      type: 'string'
    },
    lastName: {
      type: 'string'
    },
    age: {
      description: 'Age in years',
      type: 'integer'
    },
    reg: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  }
})

console.log(stringify({
  firstName: 'Matteo',
  lastName: 'Collina',
  age: 32,
  reg: /"([^"]|\\")*"/
}))

API

fastJsonStringify(schema)

Build a stringify() function based on jsonschema.

Supported types:

• 'string'
• 'integer'
• 'number'
• 'array'
• 'object'
• 'boolean'
• 'null'

And nested ones, too.

Specific use cases

Instance	Serialized as
Date	string via toISOString()
RegExp	string
BigInt	integer via toString

JSON Schema built-in formats for dates are supported and will be serialized as:

Format	Serialized format example
date-time	2020-04-03T09:11:08.615Z
date	2020-04-03
time	09:11:08

Example with a MomentJS object:

const moment = require('moment')

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema with string date-time field',
  type: 'string',
  format: 'date-time'
}

console.log(stringify(moment())) // '"YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ"'

Required

You can set specific fields of an object as required in your schema by adding the field name inside the required array in your schema. Example:

const schema = {
  title: 'Example Schema with required field',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      type: 'string'
    },
    mail: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  },
  required: ['mail']
}

If the object to stringify is missing the required field(s), fast-json-stringify will throw an error.

Missing fields

If a field is present in the schema (and is not required) but it is not present in the object to stringify, fast-json-stringify will not write it in the final string. Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      type: 'string'
    },
    mail: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  }
})

const obj = {
  mail: '[e-mail]'
}

console.log(stringify(obj)) // '{"mail":"[e-mail]"}'

Defaults

fast-json-stringify supports default jsonschema key in order to serialize a value if it is undefined or not present.

Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      type: 'string',
      default: 'the default string'
    }
  }
})

console.log(stringify({})) // '{"nickname":"the default string"}'
console.log(stringify({nickname: 'my-nickname'})) // '{"nickname":"my-nickname"}'

Pattern properties

fast-json-stringify supports pattern properties as defined by JSON schema. patternProperties must be an object, where the key is a valid regex and the value is an object, declared in this way: { type: 'type' }. patternProperties will work only for the properties that are not explicitly listed in the properties object. Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  },
  patternProperties: {
    'num': {
      type: 'number'
    },
    '.*foo$': {
      type: 'string'
    }
  }
})

const obj = {
  nickname: 'nick',
  matchfoo: 42,
  otherfoo: 'str'
  matchnum: 3
}

console.log(stringify(obj)) // '{"matchfoo":"42","otherfoo":"str","matchnum":3,"nickname":"nick"}'

Additional properties

fast-json-stringify supports additional properties as defined by JSON schema. additionalProperties must be an object or a boolean, declared in this way: { type: 'type' }. additionalProperties will work only for the properties that are not explicitly listed in the properties and patternProperties objects.

If additionalProperties is not present or is set to false, every property that is not explicitly listed in the properties and patternProperties objects,will be ignored, as described in Missing fields. Missing fields are ignored to avoid having to rewrite objects before serializing. However, other schema rules would throw in similar situations. If additionalProperties is set to true, it will be used by JSON.stringify to stringify the additional properties. If you want to achieve maximum performance, we strongly encourage you to use a fixed schema where possible. The additional properties will always be serialzied at the end of the object. Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  },
  patternProperties: {
    'num': {
      type: 'number'
    },
    '.*foo$': {
      type: 'string'
    }
  },
  additionalProperties: {
    type: 'string'
  }
})

const obj = {
  nickname: 'nick',
  matchfoo: 42,
  otherfoo: 'str'
  matchnum: 3,
  nomatchstr: 'valar morghulis',
  nomatchint: 313
}

console.log(stringify(obj)) // '{"nickname":"nick","matchfoo":"42","otherfoo":"str","matchnum":3,"nomatchstr":"valar morghulis",nomatchint:"313"}'

AnyOf

fast-json-stringify supports the anyOf keyword as defined by JSON schema. anyOf must be an array of valid JSON schemas. The different schemas will be tested in the specified order. The more schemas stringify has to try before finding a match, the slower it will be.

anyOf uses ajv as a JSON schema validator to find the schema that matches the data. This has an impact on performance—only use it as a last resort.

Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    'undecidedType': {
      'anyOf': [{
	type: 'string'
      }, {
	type: 'boolean'
      }]
    }
  }
}

If/then/else

fast-json-stringify supports if/then/else jsonschema feature. See ajv documentation.

Example:

const stringify = fastJson({
  'type': 'object',
  'properties': {
  },
  'if': {
    'properties': {
      'kind': { 'type': 'string', 'enum': ['foobar'] }
    }
  },
  'then': {
    'properties': {
      'kind': { 'type': 'string', 'enum': ['foobar'] },
      'foo': { 'type': 'string' },
      'bar': { 'type': 'number' }
    }
  },
  'else': {
    'properties': {
      'kind': { 'type': 'string', 'enum': ['greeting'] },
      'hi': { 'type': 'string' },
      'hello': { 'type': 'number' }
    }
  }
})

console.log(stringify({
  kind: 'greeting',
  foo: 'FOO',
  bar: 42,
  hi: 'HI',
  hello: 45
})) // {"kind":"greeting","hi":"HI","hello":45}
console.log(stringify({
  kind: 'foobar',
  foo: 'FOO',
  bar: 42,
  hi: 'HI',
  hello: 45
})) // {"kind":"foobar","foo":"FOO","bar":42}

NB: don't declare the properties twice or you'll print them twice!

Reuse - $ref

If you want to reuse a definition of a value, you can use the property $ref. The value of $ref must be a string in JSON Pointer format. Example:

const schema = {
  title: 'Example Schema',
  definitions: {
    num: {
      type: 'object',
      properties: {
        int: {
          type: 'integer'
        }
      }
    },
    str: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  },
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      $ref: '#/definitions/str'
    }
  },
  patternProperties: {
    'num': {
      $ref: '#/definitions/num'
    }
  },
  additionalProperties: {
    $ref: '#/definitions/def'
  }
}

const stringify = fastJson(schema)

If you need to use an external definition, you can pass it as an option to fast-json-stringify. Example:

const schema = {
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    nickname: {
      $ref: 'strings#/definitions/str'
    }
  },
  patternProperties: {
    'num': {
      $ref: 'numbers#/definitions/num'
    }
  },
  additionalProperties: {
    $ref: 'strings#/definitions/def'
  }
}

const externalSchema = {
  numbers: {
    definitions: {
      num: {
        type: 'object',
        properties: {
          int: {
            type: 'integer'
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  strings: require('./string-def.json')
}

const stringify = fastJson(schema, { schema: externalSchema })

External definitions can also reference each other. Example:

const schema = {
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    foo: {
      $ref: 'strings#/definitions/foo'
    }
  }
}

const externalSchema = {
  strings: {
    definitions: {
      foo: {
        $ref: 'things#/definitions/foo'
      }
    }
  },
  things: {
    definitions: {
      foo: {
        type: 'string'
      }
    }
  }
}

const stringify = fastJson(schema, { schema: externalSchema })

Long integers

By default the library will handle automatically BigInt from Node.js v10.3 and above. If you can't use BigInts in your environment, long integers (64-bit) are also supported using the long module. Example:

// => using native BigInt
const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    id: {
      type: 'integer'
    }
  }
})

const obj = {
  id: 18446744073709551615n
}

console.log(stringify(obj)) // '{"id":18446744073709551615}'

// => using the long library
const Long = require('long')

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    id: {
      type: 'integer'
    }
  }
})

const obj = {
  id: Long.fromString('18446744073709551615', true)
}

console.log(stringify(obj)) // '{"id":18446744073709551615}'

Uglify

If you want to squeeze a little bit more performance out of the serialization at the cost of readability in the generated code, you can pass uglify: true as an option. Note that you have to manually install uglify-es in order for this to work. Only version 3 is supported. Example:

Note that if you are using Node 8.3.0 or newer, there are no performance gains from using Uglify. See https://www.nearform.com/blog/node-js-is-getting-a-new-v8-with-turbofan/

const stringify = fastJson({
  title: 'Example Schema',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    id: {
      type: 'integer'
    }
  }
}, { uglify: true })

// stringify is now minified code
console.log(stringify({ some: 'object' })) // '{"some":"object"}'

Nullable

According to the Open API 3.0 specification, a value that can be null must be declared nullable.

Nullable object

const stringify = fastJson({
  'title': 'Nullable schema',
  'type': 'object',
  'nullable': true,
  'properties': {
    'product': {
      'nullable': true,
      'type': 'object',
      'properties': {
        'name': {
          'type': 'string'
        }
      }
    }
  }
})

console.log(stringify({product: {name: "hello"}})) // "{"product":{"name":"hello"}}"
console.log(stringify({product: null})) // "{"product":null}"
console.log(stringify(null)) // null

Otherwise, instead of raising an error, null values will be coerced as follows:

• integer -> 0
• number -> 0
• string -> ""
• boolean -> false

Caveat

In order to achieve lowest cost/highest performance redaction fast-json-stringify creates and compiles a function (using the Function constructor) on initialization. While the schema is currently validated for any developer errors, it's recommended against allowing user input to directly supply a schema. It can't be guaranteed that allowing user input for the schema couldn't feasibly expose an attack vector.

Debug Mode

The debug mode can be activated during your development to understand what is going on when things do not work as you expect.

const debugCompiled = fastJson({
  title: 'default string',
  type: 'object',
  properties: {
    firstName: {
      type: 'string'
    }
  }
}, { debugMode: true })

console.log(debugCompiled) // it is an array of functions that can create your `stringify` function
console.log(debugCompiled.toString()) // print a "ready to read" string function, you can save it to a file

const rawString = debugCompiled.toString()
const stringify = fastJson.restore(rawString) // use the generated string to get back the `stringify` function
console.log(stringify({ firstName: 'Foo', surname: 'bar' })) // '{"firstName":"Foo"}'

Acknowledgements

This project was kindly sponsored by nearForm.

License

MIT