Question

I’d like to use a data interchange format that uses no quotation marks. Maybe something based on JSON:

{
  param: value,
  param: value,
  param: {
    [{
      param: value,
      param: value
    }, {
      param: value,
      param: value
    }]
  }
}

How should I go about parsing something like that in let’s say PHP. Should do it through regular expressions?

Answer 1

Why not use JSON and leverage off the available libraries and tools available to you ? This blog entry details a JSON parser in PHP.

To handle JSON data there is JSON
extension in PHP which is available
after PHP 5.2.0. Two functions :
json_encode() and json_decode() are
very useful converting and parsing
JSON data through PHP.

Creating another format seems repetitive and error prone when there are so many well-defined and well-tested options available (JSON, XML, Google Protocol Buffers, YAML).