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json/docs/mkdocs
Niels Lohmann c72f37a40d Support custom object/array types and improve template parameter handling (#5443)
* docs: document the implicit requirements on basic_json's template parameters

The requirements that basic_json places on its eleven template parameters
were only implied by how the library uses the resulting object_t, array_t,
string_t, etc. Consumers had to discover them by trial and error.

Add "Template Parameter Requirements" collecting them, split into what is
always required and what is only required when a particular part of the API
is instantiated. Notable findings that were previously undocumented:

- ObjectType must provide a key_compare member type (actual_object_comparator
  names object_t::key_compare in both arms of a std::conditional), and its
  third template parameter is used as a comparator, so std::unordered_map
  cannot be used without a wrapper.
- ArrayType must provide capacity() -- push_back(), emplace_back(),
  operator+=(), and operator[](size_type) call it unconditionally -- and
  needs random-access iterators, so std::deque and std::list do not work.
- StringType needs contiguous, null-terminated data(), a one-byte value_type,
  and either assignability from std::to_string or an ADL int_to_string().
- NumberFloatType must be float, double, or long double for parsing and
  serialization; the integer types must satisfy std::is_integral.
- AllocatorType must be stateless, support incomplete types, and use plain
  pointers.
- BooleanType and the number types are union members and must be trivial.

Link the new page from the basic_json overview, the types feature page, and
the individual type alias pages, and correct the container examples given for
ObjectType (std::unordered_map) and ArrayType (std::list), which do not work.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Fix object_comparator_t for object types without key_compare

detail::actual_object_comparator selected between object_t::key_compare and
default_object_comparator_t with std::conditional. Both type arguments of
std::conditional are named eagerly, so object_t::key_compare had to exist
regardless of the condition, and the has_key_compare guard added in 3.11.0
never took effect: any ObjectType without a key_compare member type failed to
compile while instantiating basic_json itself.

Use detected_or_t instead, which resolves through a SFINAE partial
specialization and only names object_t::key_compare when it exists. The
selected type is unchanged for every object type that compiled before, so
object_comparator_t -- a public member type -- keeps its meaning and ABI.

has_key_compare had no other users and is removed.

Add a regression test using an adapter around std::unordered_map, which has no
key_compare; it fails to compile without this change.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: list the types that are known to work for each template parameter

Follow up on the template parameter requirements page: state, for every
template parameter, which concrete types work and where they stop working.
Each entry was verified by compiling and running a common workload (DOM
access, dump, parse, CBOR/MessagePack round-trip, flatten, hash) against that
instantiation.

Findings worth calling out:

- ObjectType no longer needs a key_compare member type, so the std::unordered_map
  adapter only has to restore the template argument order. A hash-ordered
  ObjectType works everywhere except unflatten(), which reconstructs an array
  only when it meets the reference token 0 before the other indices.
- ArrayType: std::deque works when wrapped to add capacity(); std::list does not.
- StringType: std::pmr::string and std::basic_string with a custom allocator
  compile for the DOM, dump, and parse, but not for the binary readers, flatten,
  or diff, because the library assigns std::string values to string_t and
  int_to_string cannot be overloaded for a type in namespace std.
- NumberFloatType: long double works for dump and parse but not for the binary
  formats, which have no encoding for it.
- BinaryType: std::vector<std::byte> supports assignment, get, and the binary
  formats, but neither dump nor std::hash<basic_json>.

Also record the object_comparator_t fix in its version history.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Fix unflatten and binary dumping for non-default configurations

unflatten() decided between array and object by looking at the first reference
token it happened to see for a node: it started an array only when that token
was 0. With a sorted object type the token 0 always arrives first, so the
result was correct by accident; with an object type whose iteration order is
unspecified, {"/c/2":3,"/c/1":2,"/c/0":1} unflattened to an object with the
keys "0", "1", and "2" instead of an array.

Collect the pointer prefixes that have a reference token 0 among their children
before building the result, and let get_and_create() consult that set. The
outcome is now independent of the iteration order and matches, for every input,
what a sorted object type produced before: a value is restored as an array if
and only if one of its keys is 0. Iterating the flattened object in a different
order would have been simpler, but it would have changed the key order of the
result for insertion-ordered object types.

The serializer, std::hash, and the UBJSON writer converted the elements of a
binary value to an integer implicitly, which does not compile for a BinaryType
whose value type is std::byte, and which made dump() write the bytes of a
signed value type as negative numbers. Convert to std::uint8_t explicitly in
all three places, so every byte type dumps as 0..255. The default
std::vector<std::uint8_t> configuration is unaffected.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: note which Abseil containers can be used as template arguments

Checked against Abseil release 20250127.0 with the same workload as the other
entries on the page (DOM access, dump, parse, CBOR/MessagePack/UBJSON
round-trip, flatten, hash), with and without JSON_DIAGNOSTICS.

absl::flat_hash_map and absl::node_hash_map work as ObjectType through an
adapter that restores the template argument order and makes erase(iterator)
return the following iterator, which Abseil's returns as void. The page now
carries that adapter, and notes that absl::flat_hash_map does not keep
references to the mapped values valid across insertions while
absl::node_hash_map does. Both have a capacity() member, so JSON_DIAGNOSTICS
already refreshes the parent pointers conservatively for them.

absl::btree_map and absl::InlinedVector cannot be used at all: object_t and
array_t are formed while basic_json is still incomplete, and both inspect
their value type at class scope. std::map and std::vector are required by the
standard to tolerate this, third-party containers generally are not, so the
page states the constraint on its own rather than only per container.

absl::InlinedVector does work as BinaryType, where it is instantiated with a
complete type. absl::FixedArray and absl::Cord are not usable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Relax the ArrayType and ObjectType requirements

Two requirements forced users of otherwise suitable containers to write a
wrapper, and neither was load-bearing.

array_t::capacity() was read in push_back(), emplace_back(), operator+=(), and
operator[](size_type), but set_parent() only looks at the value under
JSON_DIAGNOSTICS; without diagnostics it was computed and discarded. Read it
through array_capacity(), which reports unknown_size() when diagnostics are off
or when the array type has no capacity() at all, and treat an unknown capacity
as "the elements may have moved" so the parent pointers are refreshed
conservatively. std::deque now works as ArrayType, in both builds, and
capacity() is no longer named at all in a default build. Since the capacity is
now only meaningful for array insertions, it moves out of set_parent() into
set_parent_after_array_insert().

basic_json::erase(iterator) assigned the object's erase() return value, which
requires the container to return the following iterator. Abseil's hash maps
return void to avoid computing a successor the caller may not need. Detect that
and compute the successor before erasing; containers that return an iterator,
including the vector-backed ordered_map where a precomputed successor would be
wrong, keep the existing path.

Together these leave an Abseil hash map needing only an alias that restores the
template argument order, and no adapter at all for std::deque.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Do not require string_t to be convertible from std::string

Three places built a std::string and handed it to something expecting a
string_t: the UBJSON high-precision number reader, which every binary reader
instantiates, and the BSON writer's array element size calculation and write.
That silently required string_t to be implicitly convertible from std::string,
which std::string itself and types with a string_view conversion satisfy, but
many string types do not.

Construct the string_t explicitly from the data and size, which the
requirements already cover. This makes boost::container::string, eastl::string,
std::pmr::string, and std::basic_string with a custom allocator work as
StringType, none of which could previously be used with any binary format.

Add binary format coverage to the alt_string test, which had none, including a
UBJSON high-precision number -- the case that goes through the reader path.
BSON stays uncovered there: it additionally needs string_t::find(value_type),
which alt_string does not provide.

Also record which containers from Boost, Abseil, and EASTL work for each
template parameter, and correct two claims: std::pmr::string is usable after
this change, and tsl::ordered_map is not usable at all, because its iterators
expose the mapped value as const while basic_json modifies it in place.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: record compatibility for the common header-only hash maps

ankerl::unordered_dense (map and segmented_map), phmap (flat_hash_map and
node_hash_map), and robin_hood::unordered_flat_map all work as ObjectType
through the same adapter as Abseil's and Boost's hash maps, which only has to
restore the template argument order.

phmap::btree_map and robin_hood::unordered_node_map do not: like the other
btree containers they require a complete value type.

Note that none of these hash maps defines key_compare, so every one of them
depends on object_comparator_t falling back to default_object_comparator_t.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: record Folly and the remaining vector replacements

Folly works, with the caveat that its headers need C++20: folly::fbstring as
StringType, folly::fbvector and folly::small_vector as ArrayType,
folly::fbvector<std::uint8_t> as BinaryType, and folly::F14NodeMap as
ObjectType through the usual argument-order adapter. folly::F14FastMap is the
exception and requires a complete value type.

For ArrayType, boost::container::devector, boost::container::static_vector
(within its fixed capacity), and std::pmr::vector work as well.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: cover fifo_map, gtl, folly::sorted_vector_map, and Qt

nlohmann::fifo_map works through the adapter that has always been documented
for it, and preserves the insertion order. Restore its mention in the object
order page, which was dropped together with the tsl::ordered_map one: unlike
ordered_map it keeps a lookup index, so it is the insertion-ordered option
without the quadratic cost.

gtl::flat_hash_map and folly::sorted_vector_map work as well, the latter
through an alias that drops the allocator, whose value type it disagrees on.
gtl::btree_map does not, for the same reason as the other btree containers.

None of the Qt containers can be used, each for its own reason: QMap has no
value_type, QHash iterators yield the mapped value rather than a pair, QList
has no max_size(), QByteArray spells empty() as isEmpty(), and QString is
UTF-16.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: qualify the std::pmr::string support claim

Listing std::pmr::string as fully supported was an overclaim: it was only ever
checked with the default memory resource, which is not what PMR is for.

basic_json cannot be given an allocator or a memory resource, so a pmr string
inside a value always allocates from std::pmr::get_default_resource(), and
assigning an arena-backed string into a value silently drops its resource,
because polymorphic_allocator does not propagate on copy construction. Passing
polymorphic_allocator as AllocatorType does not compile either. Only the
process-global set_default_resource() redirects these allocations.

Say so, and separate the row from std::basic_string with a custom stateless
allocator, which is unaffected.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: remove a duplicated StringType compatibility section

The StringType section carried two 'Compatible types' tables and two copies of
the reference-implementation tip. The second table was a stale copy from before
the binary format string fixes and still listed std::pmr::string and
std::basic_string with a custom allocator as unusable, contradicting the
corrected table a few lines above it, and it dragged along the old explanation
that blamed int_to_string.

Drop the stale copy and put the surviving table before the notes, so the
'see below' in the std::pmr::string row points forwards.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: correct the template parameter requirements after independent verification

Every claim on the page was re-checked by compiling and running it, including
the rows that say a type cannot be used, which were checked to fail for the
documented reason and not merely to fail. Twenty-four claims were wrong.

The most consequential: the incomplete-type constraint applies to ObjectType
only. object_t is instantiated inside the class definition, because it is
probed for key_compare; array_t is only named there and is not instantiated
until basic_json is complete. So eastl::vector, QList and QVector are not
excluded by incomplete types at all -- they simply have no max_size() -- and
absl::InlinedVector is excluded for a subtler reason of its own.

Further corrections: ObjectType does not need erase(key), which has a fallback,
but does need at(key) for UBJSON output; only == and < are used, or == and <=>
under C++20, not all six; the documented adapter does not fit ankerl or
robin_hood. ArrayType needs no initializer-list insert, and value_type, the
(count, value) constructor and swappability are per-function, not always.
BinaryType needs a range insert for CBOR indefinite-length byte strings and
does not need push_back. StringType needs append(const StringType&)
unconditionally, and does not need operator!= or operator== against const
char*; empty(), resize(n) and reserve(n) are per-subsystem; int_to_string is
needed by diff, items and std::hash rather than by JSON Pointer or flatten.
BooleanType must be implicitly convertible from bool, and JSONSerializer's
second parameter need not carry a default.

std::pmr::string was wrong in the other direction this time: a moved-in string
does keep its memory resource, and later growth allocates from it. Only copies
land on the default resource.

Five requirement violations are not caught at compile time rather than the two
the page claimed; they are now listed together up front. Split every
compatibility table into what works and what does not, as the reasons in the
second half are the useful part.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Reduce the string_t and array_t members the library requires

Several members were required only because of how the library happened to
be written, not because the functionality needs them. Dropping them widens
the set of usable string and array types, and one of them was also a
performance problem.

string_t:

- c_str() is gone. Every call site already knew the length and passed it
  along, so data() is enough. The one place that did not, the diagnostics
  path in exceptions.hpp, now builds the token from data() and size(),
  which also stops it from truncating keys that contain a null byte.
- back() is gone; the serializer indexes the last character instead.
- find(str, pos), replace(), and substr() are gone. escape() and
  unescape() rebuilt the string with one replace() per escaped character,
  which moves the tail every time: escaping a string of n characters that
  all need escaping cost O(n^2). Both now scan with find_first_of() -- a
  member the pointer parser already required -- and append whole runs, so
  the common case is one search and one copy. Escaping 64000 tildes drops
  from 717 ms to 20 ms; a string with nothing to escape gets faster too
  (8.4 ms to 5.8 ms), because the scan is still a single memchr per pass.
  json_pointer::split() takes its reference tokens with the
  (const char*, size_type) constructor rather than substr().
- json_pointer::to_string() accumulates with concat<string_t> instead of
  letting concat default to std::string and converting afterwards, so
  streaming a json_pointer no longer requires string_t to be assignable
  from a std::string.

array_t:

- at(size_type) is gone. basic_json::at(size_type) checked the index by
  calling array_t::at() and translating std::out_of_range, which also
  required the array type to throw that exact exception. It now compares
  against size() and uses operator[]. The thrown exception, its message,
  and the behaviour under JSON_NOEXCEPTION are unchanged.

The BSON writer wrote the terminating null byte out of the string's own
buffer (size() + 1). It now writes the byte itself, so string_t::data()
need not be null-terminated for to_bson().

The tests pin the reduced API: alt_string loses the five dropped members
and gains coverage of the escaping paths, and a std::vector whose at() is
hidden is used as an ArrayType.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: record the reduced string_t and array_t requirements

Drop c_str(), back(), find(str, pos), replace(), and substr() from the
StringType requirements and at(size_type) from the ArrayType ones, and
note the string assignment the JSON pointer code performs. Streaming a
json_pointer no longer needs assignability from a std::string.

Add the non-null-terminated data() to the list of violations that are not
diagnosed at compile time -- it was described in the StringType section
but missing from the summary at the top -- and correct the QString row,
which no longer fails for the c_str() it lacks.

JSON_CATCH_USER no longer wraps a catch of std::out_of_range: the last one
went away with array_t::at(). Describe what the library actually catches.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Use character literals for the signed BinaryType test

MSVC rejects char(0xFF) with C4310 (cast truncates constant value),
which the Windows workflow treats as an error. The character literals
carry the same byte values without a narrowing cast.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Do not instantiate a hash map with an incomplete basic_json in the tests

object_t is probed for key_compare inside the definition of basic_json, so
it is instantiated while basic_json is still incomplete. Whether a hash map
survives that depends on the standard library: libstdc++ 9 needs the size of
the mapped type to instantiate std::unordered_map's node type and rejects
the adapter, which broke the GCC 9 builds.

The test now derives its no-key_compare object type from std::map -- which
does cope -- and shadows the inherited key_compare member type with an
entity that is not a type, so the library's probe finds none, exactly as for
a hash map. The unflatten() order-independence checks in unit-json_pointer
already cover the behaviour that the unordered object type was there for.
The limitation is documented for std::unordered_map.

Also address two Clang-Tidy findings the earlier commits introduced:
erase_from_object() declares its iterator with auto, and at(size_type) checks
the type first and then falls through to the return instead of throwing from
an else branch.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Keep diagnostic key paths null-terminated

Building the token from data() and size() kept an embedded null byte in the
key, and since what() hands out a C string, that truncated the whole message
rather than just the key: to_bson() on a key containing U+0000 reported
"[json.exception.out_of_range.409] (/en" instead of the full explanation.
This broke test-bson under JSON_DIAGNOSTICS.

Constructing from data() alone stops at the first null byte, which is what
c_str() did before, so the message is unchanged -- without requiring
string_t to provide c_str().

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Do not parse the value in the array-at() test

JSON_DIAGNOSTIC_POSITIONS adds the byte range of the value to the exception
message, which a parsed value has and an in-memory one does not, so the two
message checks failed in that configuration. Build the array in memory
instead of parsing it; the test is about at(size_type) not needing
array_t::at(), and the byte range is beside the point.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Move the custom BinaryType tests into their own translation unit

The two sections added to unit-regression2.cpp brought a third full
basic_json instantiation into a translation unit that was already large.
With Clang on MinGW that pushed the object over the reach of a 32-bit
relocation and test-regression2_cpp20.exe failed to link:

    relocation truncated to fit: IMAGE_REL_AMD64_REL32 against `.rdata'

unit-regression2.cpp is restored to exactly what it was before, and the
coverage moves to unit-custom-binary-type.cpp, next to the object and array
type tests it belongs with. The signed value type is now also covered in
C++11, where std::byte is not available.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Do not require the container iterators to be nothrow move constructible

iter_impl declared its defaulted move operations noexcept. The exception
specification a defaulted function gets implicitly follows from its members,
here internal_iterator, which holds the object and array iterators. libstdc++
gives std::deque's iterator a user-provided copy constructor without noexcept
before version 11, so the implicit specification is noexcept(false) and does
not match the declared one. That deletes the function -- and with g++ 4.8,
which predates CWG 1778, it is an error outright:

    error: function 'iter_impl<basic_json<std::map, std::deque> >::iter_impl(
    iter_impl&&)' defaulted on its first declaration with an
    exception-specification that differs from the implicit declaration

So std::deque, which this branch documents as a usable array type, could not
be used with an older standard library. Leaving the specification to be
computed cannot mismatch; iteration_proxy_value already spells out the same
condition next door.

The default configuration is unaffected: json::iterator, json::const_iterator
and ordered_json::iterator stay nothrow move constructible and move
assignable, which the test now checks so it cannot regress unnoticed.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Address two Clang-Tidy findings the custom container tests exposed

Both come from instantiating basic_json with containers other than the
default ones, and neither shows up with the Clang-Tidy version available
outside CI:

- insert(const_iterator, basic_json&&) forwards its by-value iterator to
  the const-reference overload. performance-unnecessary-value-param asks
  for the copy to be a move; it only fires for an iterator that is not
  trivially copyable, as std::deque's is not. The NOLINT on the function
  does not cover it, because the finding is reported where the parameter
  is used rather than where it is declared. Move it, which is what the
  check asks for and is a (very small) improvement in its own right.

- cppcoreguidelines-use-enum-class rejects the unnamed enum that shadowed
  the inherited key_compare member type. An enum class would not do, since
  it declares a type of that name and the probe would find it again; a
  member function declaration hides the name just as well.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Assert the iterators' exception specification relative to the container

The test pinned that nlohmann::json's iterators stay nothrow movable after
iter_impl's defaulted move operations lost their declared noexcept. That is
not a property of the library, though: the exception specification is now
computed from the container iterators, so it holds only for standard library
implementations whose iterators are themselves nothrow movable.

MSVC's checked iterators before VS2017 are not -- _Iterator_base12 registers
the iterator with the container's debug proxy in a copy constructor that
carries no noexcept -- so the assertions fail on a Visual Studio 2015 debug
build, which is the one debug configuration in the AppVeyor matrix and has no
counterpart in the GitHub Actions matrix.

Assert what the change actually guarantees instead: the iterators are nothrow
movable exactly when the object and array iterators they are built from are.
That still pins the default configuration against a silent regression, and it
is true whatever the standard library provides.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Detect a void-returning erase() through a named trait

erase_from_object() distinguished its two overloads with a decltype of a
member call written inline in a default template argument. Every other
detection in the library goes through the detector machinery in detected.hpp
instead -- has_erase_with_key_type is the same question about the same member
function -- and the inline form is the one shape older compilers are least
reliable about.

Express it the same way: detect_erase_with_iterator plus is_detected_exact,
both of which the library already relies on elsewhere. No behaviour changes.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Give the custom container types only the constructors the library uses

The three container types in the new tests inherited every constructor of
their base with using Base::Base. That asks for more than the test needs: the
library builds an object or an array by default construction, by copy or move,
and -- when converting between two basic_json types or from an initializer
list -- from an iterator range. Declaring those directly makes the requirement
visible in the test, and keeps object types out of a corner where a compiler
has to declare std::map's whole constructor set for a derived class while
basic_json is still incomplete.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Temporarily disable the new custom container tests

AppVeyor is the only CI that builds MSVC 2015 and 2017, and it has now
rejected three heads of this branch. Its build log is not reachable from
where this is being worked on, so the verdict is a single bit and the cause
has to be narrowed down by bisection.

Everything else stays: the library changes, the reduced alt_string, and the
unflatten() tests. If AppVeyor passes with these three translation units
disabled, the cause is one of the six basic_json instantiations they add; if
it fails, it is in the library. Either way this commit is reverted.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Guard the disabled tests with a macro rather than #if 0

Clang-Tidy's readability-avoid-unconditional-preprocessor-if rejects a literal
#if 0. Use a macro that is never defined instead, which the check does not
look at. Still temporary, and reverted together with the previous commit.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Re-enable the array and binary container tests

AppVeyor passed with all three new translation units disabled, so the library
changes, the reduced alt_string, and the unflatten() tests are fine on MSVC
2015 and 2017; the cause is one of the six basic_json instantiations the new
tests add.

Bring back two of the three. If AppVeyor passes again, the cause is in
unit-custom-object-type.cpp, which is the one still disabled; if it fails, it
is in one of these two and needs one more split. Still temporary.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Diagnose two silently violated template parameter requirements

Both were on the list of requirements that are not caught at compile time and
corrupt values rather than failing, and both are a plain size comparison:

- A BinaryType whose value_type is wider than one byte, which the readers and
  writers reinterpret as raw bytes anyway.
- A NumberUnsignedType too narrow to hold the absolute value of every
  NumberIntegerType value, which makes basic_json(INT64_MIN).dump() yield -0
  for std::int64_t with std::uint32_t.

Neither static_assert rejects a configuration that worked before: both only
fire where the result was already wrong. Also add the two comments the review
asked for, in write_bson_string() and calc_bson_array_size(), matching the
ones their counterparts already carry.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Align the template parameter tables and record what is now diagnosed

Every table in the page is reformatted so each column is exactly as wide as
its widest cell, which is what the review asked for in a dozen places: the
separator rows that ran two dashes long, the stray spaces, and the columns
padded well past their content.

The row listing six containers that require a complete mapped type is split
in two so that one cell no longer sets the width of the whole table.

Content changes: NumberUnsignedType is described as any unsigned integer type
at least as wide as NumberIntegerType rather than any unsigned integer type;
the two requirements that are now static_asserts move out of the list of
violations that are not caught at compile time; and the two places that
require a non-const operator[] say why data() will not do (std::string has no
non-const data() before C++17).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Bisect the other way: only the object container tests

The previous head touched only docs/, which AppVeyor's only_commits filter
skips, so it produced no build and no status at all -- the pull request looked
green without ever having been built on MSVC 2015 or 2017.

Swap the guards instead of repeating that step: unit-custom-object-type.cpp is
enabled and the array and binary translation units are disabled. AppVeyor
already passed with all three disabled, so a failure here pins the cause on
no_key_compare_json or void_erase_json, and a pass pins it on the array or
binary file. Still temporary.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Split the two object types apart

AppVeyor failed with only unit-custom-object-type.cpp enabled and passed with
all three new translation units disabled, so the cause is one of the two
object types in this file and not the array or binary ones.

Guard out void_erase_map and leave no_key_compare_map, which separates the two
constructs under suspicion: shadowing the inherited key_compare member type
with an entity that is not a type, and hiding the inherited erase with a
void-returning overload. A failure here points at the first, a pass at the
second. Still temporary.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Build the no-key_compare object type by composition, not inheritance

The "object type without key_compare" test failed on AppVeyor's MSVC
2017 jobs (/std:c++17): its no_key_compare_map derived publicly from
std::map and shadowed the inherited key_compare type with a same-named
member function, relying on ordinary member hiding to make key_compare
unreachable as a type for the library's detection trait. MSVC 2017
does not honor that hiding for a typename-qualified lookup performed
from outside the class and still resolves key_compare to the base's
comparator type, so object_comparator_t incorrectly picked it up
instead of falling back to default_object_comparator_t.

Wrapping a std::map by composition instead removes the base class
entirely, so there is no key_compare to find under any lookup rule,
on any compiler. Also drops the now-unneeded JSON_BISECT_CUSTOM_CONTAINER_TESTS
guard left over from narrowing this down: the void_erase_map test in
the same file was never the cause and is re-enabled unconditionally.

Verified locally with clang++ and g++ under C++17 and C++20.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Re-enable the array and binary custom-container tests

unit-custom-array-type.cpp and unit-custom-binary-type.cpp were still
guarded behind JSON_BISECT_CUSTOM_CONTAINER_TESTS from bisecting the
AppVeyor failure fixed in 7c39f3227, which was unrelated to either
file. The macro was never defined, so none of these tests actually ran
in CI. Verified locally with clang++ and g++ under C++17 and C++20
before removing the guards.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Fix indentation of custom_object_type per astyle

The one-line function bodies in the composition-based no_key_compare_map
(7c39f3227) do not match the project's Allman brace style, which the
ci_test_amalgamation job enforces with astyle. Reformatted with the
pinned astyle 3.4.13; no functional change.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* docs: add compiled reference implementations for the container template parameters

Each of ObjectType, ArrayType, StringType, and BinaryType now links to a
minimal, self-contained header (docs/mkdocs/docs/examples/custom_*_type.hpp)
that wraps the corresponding standard container by composition and satisfies
every "Always required" member listed on that page. Unlike the prose
requirement lists, these are real code: each header has a companion .cpp that
instantiates a basic_json specialization with it and is compiled and run by
the existing ci_test_examples check (docs/Makefile's check_output_portable),
so the reference implementations cannot silently drift from what the library
actually requires. The .output files were generated with that same target.

StringType's existing pointer to tests/src/unit-alt-string.cpp's alt_string
is kept alongside the new header as a more thorough, battle-tested example.

Verified locally: astyle (pinned 3.4.13, project .astylerc) on the new files;
clang++/g++ under C++11/17/20 for each example against the amalgamated
header; `make check_output_portable` in docs/; `mkdocs build --strict` and
scripts/check_structure.py for the page itself.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Declare no_key_compare_map's accessors noexcept

The GCC C++20 job builds with -Wnoexcept and -Werror, and the standard
library takes noexcept(c.begin()) and noexcept(c.end()) in ranges_base.h and
range_access.h. Forwarding to std::map without repeating its noexcept made
those expressions false, which the warning reports as an error:

  error: noexcept-expression evaluates to 'false' because of a call to
         no_key_compare_map<...>::begin()          [-Werror=noexcept]
  note:  but ... does not throw; perhaps it should be declared 'noexcept'

Give the accessors the exception specification of what they forward to.
std::map declares begin, end, cbegin, cend, empty, size, max_size, and clear
noexcept, so the wrapper does too. swap is left alone: std::map's is only
conditionally noexcept, and nothing asks for it.

void_erase_map is unaffected because it still derives from std::map and
inherits accessors that already carry the specification.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Write out what the defaulted constructor of no_key_compare_map implied

ci_test_gcc builds with -Weffc++, which asks for data to be initialized in a
member initialization list; a defaulted default constructor does not do that:

  error: 'no_key_compare_map<...>::data' should be initialized in the member
         initialization list                              [-Werror=effc++]

Writing the constructor out satisfies that but drops the exception
specification the defaulted one carried, which -Wnoexcept then objects to
where the standard library takes noexcept(construct(...)). Declare it the way
the defaulted constructor was: noexcept when the wrapped map's default
constructor is.

This is the cost of composition -- inheritance carried std::map's exception
specifications and initialization for free, and forwarding by hand has to
restate them.

Checked with the repository's own GCC warning set from cmake/gcc_flags.cmake,
all 346 flags, at C++11, C++17 and C++20: no diagnostics for this file, nor
for the two custom container translation units that were disabled while the
MSVC failure was narrowed down and are built again now.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Mark no_key_compare_map::swap noexcept

Clang-Tidy rejects a swap that is not:

  error: swap functions should be marked noexcept
         [cppcoreguidelines-noexcept-swap,performance-noexcept-swap]

It was left unmarked on the grounds that std::map::swap is only
conditionally noexcept, so an unconditional promise would be wrong for a
comparator or allocator that can throw while swapping. Both concerns are met
by taking the specification from the wrapped map rather than asserting one:
noexcept(noexcept(data.swap(other.data))). Clang-Tidy accepts that, and no
NOLINT is needed.

Last in the series of specifications that inheritance used to supply and
composition has to write out by hand.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018hxZxz8svM54c6ATEvXp5E
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-15 20:46:37 +02:00
..
2025-01-18 23:20:45 +01:00