json_view: from_json() of the macros reads views directly (#5922)

get<T>() and get_to() of a view call T's from_json() with the view itself
when that from_json() accepts views but not an unrelated probe type, and
fall back to materialize() otherwise. The from_json() functions of the
NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_*, NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_* and
NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM(_STRICT) macros accept basic_json values and
views; a derived type whose base reads only json reads the base part
through materialize(). The library's own from_json() overloads are not
called with views: from_json() of a view (and of the probe) only looks up
functions by ADL.

New public trait nlohmann::is_json_view<T>, and the member type
basic_json_type of basic_json_view. With duplicate keys, the members of
such a T are those the view's lookups find (the first ones).

bench_decode.cpp measures decoding into structs (4-6x faster than
materialize().get<T>() on twitter, citm_catalog, and synthetic records).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
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Niels Lohmann authored and GitHub committed 2026-10-26 20:13:31 +01:00
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@@ -27,8 +27,25 @@ For the types below, the conversion works directly on the flat index -- no `Basi
[`materialize()`](materialize.md)) does; `#!cpp std::map<std::string, basic_json_view>` keeps views of the members
instead of values
Every other `T` -- `#!cpp std::list`, `#!cpp std::pair`, `#!cpp std::array`, enumerations, user types with a
`from_json()`, ... -- is converted by `#!cpp materialize().get<T>()`: the subtree is built into a real `BasicJsonType`
A default-constructible `T` whose `from_json()` accepts views reads the view directly as well, member by member, without
building a `BasicJsonType` value. This covers the types of the
[`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_*`](../macros/nlohmann_define_type_intrusive.md) and
[`NLOHMANN_DEFINE_DERIVED_TYPE_*`](../macros/nlohmann_define_derived_type.md) macros and the enumerations of
[`NLOHMANN_JSON_SERIALIZE_ENUM`](../macros/nlohmann_json_serialize_enum.md), and any `from_json()` constrained to
accept views, e.g. with [`is_json_view`](../is_json_view.md). A `from_json()` that also accepts types that are no JSON
values at all, such as the unconstrained `#!cpp template<typename BasicJsonType> void from_json(const BasicJsonType&,
T&)` of [arbitrary type conversions](../../features/arbitrary_types.md), is not called with a view: it may use
`BasicJsonType` functions a view does not have. See [json_view](../../features/json_view.md).
!!! warning "Duplicate keys"
Such a `from_json()` looks members up in the view, where a repeated key finds the **first** member, while
`#!cpp materialize().get<T>()` sees the **last** one, as [`BasicJsonType::parse()`](../basic_json/parse.md)
keeps it: for `#!cpp {"x":1,"x":2}`, `#!cpp get<point>()` reads `#!cpp x == 1`. See
[Duplicate keys](../../features/json_view.md#duplicate-keys).
Every other `T` -- `#!cpp std::list`, `#!cpp std::pair`, `#!cpp std::array`, user types whose `from_json()` is
written for `BasicJsonType` only, ... -- is converted by `#!cpp materialize().get<T>()`: the subtree is built into a real `BasicJsonType`
value first (as [`BasicJsonType::parse()`](../basic_json/parse.md) would), and converted from there exactly as
[`BasicJsonType::get<T>()`](../basic_json/get.md) would convert it.
@@ -55,10 +72,13 @@ Strong guarantee: there are no changes to the view or the document it refers to.
an element to `U` throws.
- For `#!cpp std::map`/`#!cpp std::unordered_map`: throws `type_error.302` if the value is not an object; otherwise,
whatever converting a member to the mapped type throws.
- For a `T` whose `from_json()` reads the view: whatever that `from_json()` throws; for the macros, the same
exceptions with the same messages as [`BasicJsonType::get<T>()`](../basic_json/get.md) of the same value.
- For every other `T`: whatever [`materialize().get<T>()`](../basic_json/get.md) throws -- typically `type_error.302`,
or whatever a user-provided `from_json()` throws.
None of the exceptions thrown directly by this function (the first three bullets above) carry a
None of the exceptions thrown directly by this function or by a `from_json()` that reads the view (the first four
bullets above) carry a
[`JSON_DIAGNOSTICS`](../macros/json_diagnostics.md) path: the view has no `BasicJsonType` value to point at. An
exception thrown while converting through `materialize()` (the last bullet) is different: it is thrown by a real
`BasicJsonType` value, so it **does** carry a `JSON_DIAGNOSTICS` path if `BasicJsonType` was built with it enabled.
@@ -76,6 +96,8 @@ document.
- `#!cpp std::map`/`#!cpp std::unordered_map`: linear in the number of members for walking them, plus the container's
own insertion cost per member (logarithmic for `#!cpp std::map`, amortized constant for `#!cpp
std::unordered_map`), times the complexity of converting one member to the mapped type.
- a `T` whose `from_json()` reads the view: the cost of that `from_json()`; for the macros, linear in the number of
members times the cost of a lookup, plus the cost of converting the members.
- every other `T`: the cost of [`materialize()`](materialize.md) and of destroying the `BasicJsonType` value
afterwards, plus that of [`BasicJsonType::get<T>()`](../basic_json/get.md).