Introduction

Serdec is a C serialization and deserialization library.

It provides simple APIs for constructing JSON trees, serializing to strings, and parsing JSON strings back into structured C objects.

In the future, it will support multiple data serialzation format (e.g. YAML, TOML, XML, CSV).

Core Functions

Creation Functions

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_new_object(void)	Create a new empty JSON object {}.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_array(void)	Create a new empty JSON array [].	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_null(void)	Create a JSON null value node.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_bool(bool value)	Create a JSON true/false value node.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_int(int64_t value)	Create a JSON integer value node.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_float(double value)	Create a JSON floating-point value node.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_new_string(const char* str)	Create a JSON string value node (copies the string).	serdec_json_t*

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Adding Fields to Objects

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_add_null(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, void* null)	Add a null field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_bool(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, bool value)	Add a boolean field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_int(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, int64_t value)	Add an integer field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_float(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, double value)	Add a float field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_string(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, const char* value)	Add a string field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_array(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, serdec_json_t* array)	Add an array as a field into an object.	bool
serdec_json_add_object(serdec_json_t* object, const char* key, serdec_json_t* value)	Add a nested object field into an object.	bool

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Manipulating Arrays

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_array_add(serdec_json_t* array, serdec_json_t* value)	Add a value into an array.	bool

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Serialization and Deserialization

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_stringify(const serdec_json_t* object)	Serialize a JSON tree into a compact string.	char* (must free())
serdec_json_pretty_stringify(const serdec_json_t* object)	Serialize a JSON tree into a human-readable formatted string.	char* (must free())
serdec_json_parse(const char* json_string)	Parse a JSON string into an in-memory tree.	serdec_json_t*

Memory Management

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_free(serdec_json_t* node)	Recursively free an entire JSON structure.	void

🌟 Optional/Advanced Functions

Function	Description	Return Value
serdec_json_typeof(const serdec_json_t* node)	Get the type of a JSON node.	serdec_json_type
serdec_json_object_get(const serdec_json_t* object, const char* key)	Lookup a field by key from an object.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_array_get(const serdec_json_array_t* array, size_t index)	Retrieve an element by index from an array.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_clone(const serdec_json_t* node)	Deep copy a full JSON node tree.	serdec_json_t*
serdec_json_merge(serdec_json_t* target, const serdec_json_t* source)	Merge fields from one object into another.	bool
serdec_json_get_last_error(void)	Get a description of the last error that occurred.	const char*
serdec_json_clear_error(void)	Clear the last error.	void

📋 JSON Type Enumeration

typedef enum {
    SERDEC_JSON_NULL,
    SERDEC_JSON_BOOLEAN,
    SERDEC_JSON_INT,
    SERDEC_JSON_FLOAT,
    SERDEC_JSON_STRING,
    SERDEC_JSON_ARRAY,
    SERDEC_JSON_OBJECT
} serdec_json_type;

• Used by serdec_json_typeof() to determine node types at runtime.

📌 Notes

• Always free memory returned by serdec_json_stringify and serdec_json_pretty_stringify using free().
• serdec_json_free() automatically frees all child nodes recursively.
• If you use C11, you can use _Generic macro-based serdec_json_add(object, key, value) for automatic type dispatching.
• If using C99, call serdec_json_add_int, serdec_json_add_string, etc., manually.

🌟 Example Usage

example.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <serdec/serdec.h>

int main(void) {
    serdec_json_t* root = serdec_json_new_object();
    serdec_json_add_string(root, "name", "Leorium");
    serdec_json_add_int(root, "age", 20);

    serdec_json_t* hobbies = serdec_json_new_array();
    serdec_json_array_add(hobbies, serdec_json_new_string("C Programming"));
    serdec_json_array_add(hobbies, serdec_json_new_string("Motorcycling"));

    serdec_json_add_object(root, "hobbies", hobbies);

    char* output = serdec_json_stringify(root);
    printf("%s\n", output);

    serdec_json_free(root);
    free(output);
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}