Question

I’m working with an API that is sending JSON responses like this:

    [
  - {
    "id": 46843639,
    "nickname": "JSON",
    "registration_date": "2004-03-07T23:16:20.000-04:00",
    "country_id": "BR",
    "user_type": "normal",
    "logo": null,
    "points": 91,
    "site_id": "JSN",
    "permalink": "http://xxxxxx",
    "seller_reputation": - {
      "level_id": "2_orange",
      "power_seller_status": null,
      "transactions": - {
        "period": "historic",
        "total": 14,
        "completed": 8,
        "canceled": 6,
        "ratings": - {
          "positive": 1,
          "negative": 0,
          "neutral": 0,
        },
      },
    },
    "status": - {
      "site_status": "active",
    },
  },
]

I couldn’t find that minus ‘-‘ sign in any specification documents. Is this JSON standard?

Answer 1

No, it’s not. The server is sending you broken JSON.

The only times - is valid are when it’s in a string, when it immediately precedes a number, or when it immediately follows the e or E in a floating-point number.

Add to that, commas should separate name/value pairs and array elements, not follow them. Those commas following the last entry in each object / array, are invalid as well.