Update performance docs for fast std::istream and FILE* parsing (#5875)

performance.md still claimed streams have no fast path (outdated since #5828).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
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Niels Lohmann authored and GitHub committed 2026-10-21 12:25:10 +02:00
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@@ -20,32 +20,39 @@ below apply on every supported standard. This adapter exposes two optimizations
- it can reconstruct already-consumed input on demand for error messages, instead of copying every character as it is
read, and
- the lexer can scan ordinary string characters directly out of the buffer, several bytes at a time, rather than one
character (and one function call) at a time.
- the lexer can scan ordinary string characters, numbers, and indentation directly out of the buffer, several bytes at
a time, rather than one character (and one function call) at a time.
A `#!cpp std::istream` (including `#!cpp std::ifstream`) or `#!cpp FILE*`, by contrast, is read through
`input_stream_adapter` or `file_input_adapter`, which read one character (or one block, for binary formats) at a time
and expose neither optimization -- the lexer falls back to the same byte-at-a-time path it uses for any
non-contiguous, general-purpose iterator range. An iterator pair over non-contiguous but random-access storage (e.g.
`#!cpp std::deque<char>::iterator`) gets the first optimization but not the second, since the byte-scanning fast path
additionally requires contiguous storage.
A `#!cpp std::istream` (including `#!cpp std::ifstream`) gets the same bulk scanning: `input_stream_adapter` scans the
characters its stream buffer already holds (the *get area*) and asks the stream buffer for more only when they are used
up. Nothing is read ahead, so the stream is left exactly where it would be after reading one character at a time, and
[`operator>>`](../api/operator_gtgt.md) can still read several values from one stream. A stream buffer without a get
area is read one character at a time. A `#!cpp FILE*` is still read one character at a time, but `file_input_adapter`
locks the file once per parse instead of once per character. See
[input sources and performance](parsing/index.md#input-sources-and-performance) for the full table. According to the
description of [#5828](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/pull/5828), parsing from a stream is within about 10 to 20 % of
parsing an equivalent `#!cpp std::string`.
Practically: if the JSON text is already in memory, or small enough to read into memory, prefer passing a
`#!cpp std::string`, a `#!cpp std::vector<char>`, or a pointer range to `parse` over a `#!cpp std::istream`. For a
file, that means reading it into a string first and then parsing the string, rather than passing a
`#!cpp std::ifstream` directly to `parse` -- the latter never benefits from either optimization:
Inputs that are still read one character at a time: iterator ranges that are not contiguous (e.g.
`#!cpp std::list<char>` or `#!cpp std::istreambuf_iterator<char>`), wide strings, and user-defined adapters. An
iterator pair over non-contiguous but random-access storage (e.g. `#!cpp std::deque<char>::iterator`) gets the first
optimization but not the second, since the byte-scanning fast path requires contiguous storage.
Practically: a file can be passed directly to `parse`, which also avoids the memory for a copy of the file. Reading it
into a string first is no longer necessary for speed:
```cpp
// gets the contiguous fast paths
// fast: the stream buffer's get area is scanned in bulk
std::ifstream f("example.json");
std::string contents((std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(f)), std::istreambuf_iterator<char>());
json j = json::parse(contents);
// does not: input_stream_adapter has no fast path
std::ifstream f2("example.json");
json j2 = json::parse(f2);
json j = json::parse(f);
```
Two macros switch the stream optimizations off without changing any result:
[`JSON_DISABLE_STREAM_BULK_SCAN`](../api/macros/json_disable_stream_bulk_scan.md) for stream buffers that do not follow
the usual `#!cpp std::streambuf` contract, and
[`JSON_DISABLE_UNLOCKED_FILE_IO`](../api/macros/json_disable_unlocked_file_io.md) for programs in which another thread
must use the same `#!cpp FILE` object while it is parsed.
For contiguous input with many non-ASCII characters, [`JSON_USE_SIMDUTF`](../api/macros/json_use_simdutf.md) can
additionally speed up UTF-8 validation by using the [simdutf](https://github.com/simdutf/simdutf) library instead of
the built-in scalar validator; streaming inputs (files, `#!cpp std::istream`, wide strings, user-defined adapters)