Export Options Across JSON Formatting Tools

When working with JSON data using online tools, command-line utilities, or libraries, the way you output or export the data can vary significantly beyond just getting a basic JSON string. Understanding these export options is crucial for integrating formatted JSON into different workflows, scripts, or applications. This page explores common and some less common export formats and options you might encounter.

Standard JSON Output

The most fundamental export options revolve around standard JSON itself, as defined by RFC 8259. The primary difference here is usually around whitespace.

Minified JSON

This format removes all non-essential whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines) to reduce file size. It's ideal for data transmission where bandwidth is a concern, but makes the JSON nearly unreadable by humans.

{"name":"Alice","age":30,"isStudent":false,"courses":["Math","Science"]}

Pretty-Printed (Formatted) JSON

This option adds whitespace (indentation and newlines) to make the JSON structure clear and easy to read for developers. Tools often allow you to customize the indentation style (e.g., 2 spaces, 4 spaces, tabs).

{
    "name": "Alice",
    "age": 30,
    "isStudent": false,
    "courses": [
        "Math",
        "Science"
    ]
}

Look for options like "Indent with:" followed by "2 Spaces", "4 Spaces", "Tabs", etc. This is one of the most common formatting controls.

JSON Lines (Newline-Delimited JSON - NDJSON)

Exporting as JSON Lines (`.jsonl` or `.ndjson`) is useful when dealing with a stream or list of independent JSON objects. Instead of wrapping the entire dataset in a single JSON array `[...]`, each line in the output file is a complete, valid JSON object, separated by a newline character.

This format is particularly beneficial for processing large datasets line by line without loading the entire structure into memory, and for streaming data.

{"id": 1, "item": "Apple", "price": 0.5}
{"id": 2, "item": "Banana", "price": 0.3}
{"id": 3, "item": "Cherry", "price": 0.1}

JavaScript/TypeScript Variable Export

Some tools offer to wrap the JSON data in a JavaScript or TypeScript variable declaration. This is convenient if you plan to directly import the data into a frontend or backend script without needing to parse a separate JSON file at runtime.

export const jsonData = {
    "users": [
        { "name": "Alice", "id": 1 },
        { "name": "Bob", "id": 2 }
    ],
    "count": 2
};

This format often includes a variable name option, allowing you to specify the desired variable identifier (`jsonData` in the example above).

Advanced & Tool-Specific Options

Beyond the common formats, powerful JSON tools may offer options that manipulate the data structure itself during export:

Controlling Indentation Style & Characters

As mentioned, customizing indentation (e.g., using 2 spaces vs. 4 spaces, or tabs) is standard. Some tools might even let you specify the exact characters for indentation.

Preserving Key Order

While the JSON specification does not guarantee object key order, many parsers and tools *do* maintain insertion order. Some tools may offer an option to ensure that the original key order from the input is preserved in the output, which can be important for specific use cases (though relying on order is generally discouraged in standard JSON practice).

Filtering/Selecting Data

Advanced tools might allow you to specify paths or queries (like JMESPath or JSONPath) to export only a subset of the data.

[
    "Alice",
    "Bob"
]

This transforms the structure based on your criteria before exporting.

Flattening Nested Structures

For complex, deeply nested JSON, some tools can export a "flattened" version, often represented as key-value pairs where keys use dot notation (e.g., user.address.city). This can make data easier to import into spreadsheet software or simple key-value stores.

{
    "user.name": "Alice",
    "user.age": 30,
    "user.address.street": "123 Main St",
    "user.address.city": "Anytown",
    "roles[0]": "admin",
    "roles[1]": "editor"
}

Exporting Specific Components (e.g., Keys, Values)

Some tools might have options to export just the list of all keys found in the JSON, or just a list of all primitive values, etc., depending on the tool's purpose.

Choosing the Right Option

The best export option depends entirely on your use case:

• For human readability during development: Pretty-printed JSON with a comfortable indentation level.
• For efficient data transfer or storage: Minified JSON.
• For processing large lists or streams of objects: JSON Lines (NDJSON).
• For direct inclusion in JavaScript/TypeScript codebases: Variable export.
• For analysis or migration to simpler formats: Filtering or Flattening.

Familiarizing yourself with the export capabilities of your preferred JSON tools can significantly streamline your data handling workflows. Always check the options panel or documentation of the tool you are using to see what specific export formats and configurations are available.