JSONlab: a toolbox to encode/decode JSON files in MATLAB/Octave

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a highly portable, human-readable and "fat-free" text format to represent complex and hierarchical data. It is as powerful as XML, but less verbose. JSON format is widely used for data-exchange in applications, and is essential for the wild success of Ajax and Web2.0. We envision that JSON will serve as a mainstream data-exchange format for scientific research in the near future, providing similar functionalities as HDF5.

JSONlab is a free and open-source implementation of a JSON encoder and a decoder in native MATLAB language. It can be used to convert a MATLAB data structure (array, struct, cell, struct array and cell array) into JSON data file, or decode a JSON file into MATLAB data. JSONlab supports both MATLAB and GNU Octave, a free MATLAB clone.

JSONlab was developed by Qianqian Fang at the Optics Division, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Learn Qianqian's other projects

Why JSON?

• JSON is a human-readable format
• JSON can represent arbitrarily complex datasets
• JSON parser for most languages are available for free
• JSON data are web-friendly as it can be directly invoked (inline or load from remote site) in JavaScript

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