superjson

What is superjson?

Superjson is a flexible and powerful library for serializing JavaScript data structures, including those that are not supported by JSON, such as Dates, RegExps, Maps, Sets, and more. It allows for seamless serialization and deserialization of complex data types, making it easier to work with complex data in applications that require data persistence or transmission.

What are superjson's main functionalities?

Serialization of complex types

Superjson can serialize complex JavaScript types like Dates, Maps, and Sets into a string representation that can be easily transmitted or stored. Upon deserialization, these strings are converted back into their original complex types.

{"date": "2023-04-14T12:00:00.000Z", "map": "[[\"key1\",\"value1\"],[\"key2\",\"value2\"]]", "set": "[\"a\",\"b\",\"c\"]"}

Custom serialization

Developers can define custom serialization and deserialization logic for unsupported types or to override the default behavior for supported types. This feature enhances flexibility and control over how data is serialized.

{"customType": "SerializedValue"}

Other packages similar to superjson

flatted

Flatted is a package that offers serialization and deserialization of complex JavaScript objects, including nested objects and circular references, using a flat structure. Compared to Superjson, Flatted focuses on solving circular reference issues but does not explicitly handle a wide range of JavaScript types like Superjson does.

serialize-javascript

Serialize-javascript provides serialization of JavaScript objects into a string, including regular expressions and functions. It is similar to Superjson in its ability to handle non-standard JSON data types, but it is more focused on including functions in the serialization process, which Superjson does not inherently support.

README

Safely work with dates, bigints, and more with this superset of JSON.

Backstory

...

Key features

• 🍱 Reliable serialization and deserialization
• 🔐 Type safety with autocompletion
• 🐾 Negligible runtime footprint
• 💫 Framework agnostic

Example

const input = {
  normal: 'string',
  timestamp: new Date(),
};

const { json, meta } = serialize(input);

/*
json = {
  normal: 'string',
  timestamp: "2020-06-20T04:56:50.293Z",
}

meta = {
  timestamp: 'Date',
}
*/