Recover from parse errors when parse_error() returns true (#3989)

The return value of json_sax::parse_error() was documented both as "must
return false" and as "whether the parsing should continue", and the code
just passed it on. For JSON text, parsing stopped anyway, but sax_parse()
could report success for invalid input. The binary readers read on after
the error, looping forever on a CBOR indefinite-length array without its
end.

Now false stops parsing, and true recovers from the error:

- JSON text is repaired with the smallest local edit (insert a missing
  ',' or ':', remove a stray token, keep the readable part of a broken
  string or number, null for a value that cannot be read, close the
  innermost container at a wrong closing bracket and all of them at the
  end of the input), and parsing continues. The SAX events stay balanced,
  every key is followed by exactly one value, and each token is reported
  at most once.
- The binary formats cannot resynchronize, so they stop, but complete
  the value read so far.

sax_parse() returns false after any error. parse(), accept(), and the
from_*() functions never recover and compile to the same code as before.

Supersedes #4522.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann
2026-09-27 20:16:42 +02:00
parent 509c07041f
commit 9adb510a0d
21 changed files with 4242 additions and 285 deletions
+4 -1
View File
@@ -90,7 +90,9 @@ The SAX event lister must follow the interface of [`json_sax`](../json_sax/index
## Return value
return value of the last processed SAX event
`#!cpp true` if the input was parsed without errors and no SAX event returned `#!cpp false`; `#!cpp false` otherwise.
In particular, the result is `#!cpp false` for input with errors, even if the SAX parser recovered from all of them
(see [error recovery](../../features/parsing/error_recovery.md)).
## Exception safety
@@ -138,6 +140,7 @@ A UTF-8 byte order mark is silently ignored.
- Ignoring comments via `ignore_comments` added in version 3.9.0.
- Added `ignore_trailing_commas` in version 3.13.0.
- Extended container support (1) to include types with lvalue-only ADL `begin`/`end` (matching `std::begin`/`std::end` semantics) in version 3.13.0.
- Recovering from parse errors (see [`parse_error`](../json_sax/parse_error.md)) added in version 3.13.0.
- Extended overload (2) to accept heterogeneous iterator+sentinel pairs (C++20 ranges support) in version 3.13.0.
- `JSON_PRECISE_STREAM_POSITION` added in version 3.13.0 to optionally leave a `#!cpp std::istream` positioned right
after the parsed value when `strict` is `#!cpp false`.