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json/api/basic_json_view/materialize.md
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# <small>nlohmann::basic_json_view::</small>materialize
```cpp
BasicJsonType materialize() const;
```
Builds the `BasicJsonType` value of this subtree: the value [`BasicJsonType::parse()`](../basic_json/parse.md) would
have produced for the same source text, allocated for the first time by this call.
## Return value
The `BasicJsonType` value of this subtree, or a discarded `BasicJsonType` value (`#!cpp BasicJsonType(value_t::discarded)`)
if the view is [discarded](is_discarded.md).
## Exception safety
Strong guarantee: there are no changes to the view or the document it refers to (nothing about either is mutated by
this function).
## Exceptions
May throw `#!cpp std::bad_alloc` (via `BasicJsonType`'s allocator) if constructing the result fails.
## Complexity
Linear in the size of the subtree.
## Notes
`materialize()` replays the subtree through the same SAX builder [`BasicJsonType::parse()`](../basic_json/parse.md)
uses, so the result matches it exactly -- including, for an object, that a repeated key keeps only its
last value. The replay is iterative, so it is not limited by the call stack the way a naive recursive conversion
would be; the JSON nesting depth is limited only by available memory, as for `BasicJsonType::parse()` itself.
Unlike parsing with [`JSON_DIAGNOSTIC_POSITIONS`](../macros/json_diagnostic_positions.md) enabled, the values
produced by `materialize()` do not carry source positions. The index has the start offset of every value, but not the
end of arrays, objects, and escaped strings, which the positions also need.
Calling `materialize()` on the same view repeatedly builds a new, independent `BasicJsonType` value each time; it
never caches the result.
## Examples
??? example
The example below skips messages that are not useful -- a discarded value, or an empty array -- using only
[`is_array()`](is_array.md) and [`empty()`](empty.md), and calls `materialize()` only for the messages that are
actually used, so no `BasicJsonType` value (and none of its per-element allocations) is ever built for the
skipped ones.
```cpp
#include <array>
#include <iostream>
#include <nlohmann/json_view.hpp>
using json_document = nlohmann::json_document;
int main()
{
// three incoming messages; skip the ones that are not useful without ever
// building a nlohmann::json value for them
json_document heartbeat = json_document::parse("null");
json_document empty_batch = json_document::parse("[]");
json_document batch = json_document::parse(R"([{"id": 1}, {"id": 2}, {"id": 3}])");
std::array<const json_document*, 3> messages = {{&heartbeat, &empty_batch, &batch}};
for (const json_document* d : messages)
{
// is_array()/empty() only look at the flat index: a discarded
// heartbeat or an empty batch is never turned into a nlohmann::json
// value, so no per-element allocation happens for them
if (!d->root().is_array() || d->root().empty())
{
std::cout << "skipped\n";
continue;
}
// materialize() replays the subtree through the same SAX builder
// basic_json::parse() uses, so the result is exactly what
// basic_json::parse() would have produced for the same text
nlohmann::json value = d->root().materialize();
std::cout << value.dump() << '\n';
}
}
```
Output:
```json
skipped
skipped
[{"id":1},{"id":2},{"id":3}]
```
## See also
- [root](../basic_json_document/root.md) - the view of a document's root value
- [`BasicJsonType::parse`](../basic_json/parse.md) - build a `BasicJsonType` value directly from a JSON text
- [`JSON_DIAGNOSTIC_POSITIONS`](../macros/json_diagnostic_positions.md) - source positions on parsed values (not
produced by `materialize()`)
## Version history
- Added in version 3.13.0.