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# comment-json

Parse and stringify JSON with comments. It will retain comments even after saved!

- [Parse](#parse) JSON strings with comments into JavaScript objects and MAINTAIN comments
  - supports comments everywhere, yes, **EVERYWHERE** in a JSON file, eventually 😆
  - fixes the known issue about comments inside arrays.
- [Stringify](#stringify) the objects into JSON strings with comments if there are

The usage of `comment-json` is exactly the same as the vanilla [`JSON`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON) object.

## Table of Contents

- [Why](#why) and [How](#how)
- [Usage and examples](#usage)
- API reference
  - [parse](#parse)
  - [stringify](#stringify)
  - [assign](#assigntarget-object-source-object-keys-array)
  - [CommentArray](#commentarray)
- [Change Logs](https://github.com/kaelzhang/node-comment-json/releases)

## Why?

There are many other libraries that can deal with JSON with comments, such as [json5](https://npmjs.org/package/json5), or [strip-json-comments](https://npmjs.org/package/strip-json-comments), but none of them can stringify the parsed object and return back a JSON string the same as the original content.

Imagine that if the user settings are saved in `${library}.json`， and the user has written a lot of comments to improve readability. If the library `library` need to modify the user setting, such as modifying some property values and adding new fields, and if the library uses `json5` to read the settings, all comments will disappear after modified which will drive people insane.

So, **if you want to parse a JSON string with comments, modify it, then save it back**, `comment-json` is your must choice!

## How?

`comment-json` parse JSON strings with comments and save comment tokens into [symbol](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol) properties.

For JSON array with comments, `comment-json` extends the vanilla `Array` object into [`CommentArray`](#commentarray) whose instances could handle comments changes even after a comment array is modified.

## Install

```sh
$ npm i comment-json
```

~~For TypeScript developers, [`@types/comment-json`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@types/comment-json) could be used~~

Since `2.4.1`, `comment-json` contains typescript declarations, so you might as well remove `@types/comment-json`.

## Usage

package.json:

```js
{
  // package name
  "name": "comment-json"
}
```

```js
const {
  parse,
  stringify,
  assign
} = require('comment-json')
const fs = require('fs')

const obj = parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json').toString())

console.log(obj.name) // comment-json

stringify(obj, null, 2)
// Will be the same as package.json, Oh yeah! 😆
// which will be very useful if we use a json file to store configurations.
```

### Sort keys

It is a common use case to sort the keys of a JSON file

```js
const parsed = parse(`{
  // b
  "b": 2
  // a
  "a": 1
}`)

// Copy the properties including comments from `parsed` to the new object `{}`
// according to the sequence of the given keys
const sorted = assign(
  {},
  parsed,
  // You could also use your custom sorting function
  Object.keys(parsed).sort()
)

console.log(stringify(sorted, null, 2))
// {
//   // a
//   "a": 1,
//   // b
//   "b": 2
// }
```

For details about `assign`, see [here](#assigntarget-object-source-object-keys-array).

## parse()

```ts
parse(text, reviver? = null, remove_comments? = false)
  : object | string | number | boolean | null
```

- **text** `string` The string to parse as JSON. See the [JSON](http://json.org/) object for a description of JSON syntax.
- **reviver?** `Function() | null` Default to `null`. It acts the same as the second parameter of [`JSON.parse`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/parse). If a function, prescribes how the value originally produced by parsing is transformed, before being returned.
- **remove_comments?** `boolean = false` If true, the comments won't be maintained, which is often used when we want to get a clean object.

Returns `CommentJSONValue` (`object | string | number | boolean | null`) corresponding to the given JSON text.

If the `content` is:

```js
/**
 before-all
 */
// before-all
{ // before:foo
  // before:foo
  /* before:foo */
  "foo" /* after-prop:foo */: // after-colon:foo
  1 // after-value:foo
  // after-value:foo
  , // after:foo
  // before:bar
  "bar": [ // before:0
    // before:0
    "baz" // after-value:0
    // after-value:0
    , // after:0
    "quux"
    // after:1
  ] // after:bar
  // after:bar
}
// after-all
```

```js
const {inspect} = require('util')

const parsed = parse(content)

console.log(
  inspect(parsed, {
    // Since 4.0.0, symbol properties of comments are not enumerable,
    // use `showHidden: true` to print them
    showHidden: true
  })
)

console.log(Object.keys(parsed))
// > ['foo', 'bar']

console.log(stringify(parsed, null, 2))
// 🚀 Exact as the content above! 🚀
```

And the value of `parsed` will be:

```js
{
  // Comments before the JSON object
  [Symbol.for('before-all')]: [{
    type: 'BlockComment',
    value: '\n before-all\n ',
    inline: false,
    loc: {
      // The start location of `/**`
      start: {
        line: 1,
        column: 0
      },
      // The end location of `*/`
      end: {
        line: 3,
        column: 3
      }
    }
  }, {
    type: 'LineComment',
    value: ' before-all',
    inline: false,
    loc: ...
  }],
  ...

  [Symbol.for('after-prop:foo')]: [{
    type: 'BlockComment',
    value: ' after-prop:foo ',
    inline: true,
    loc: ...
  }],

  // The real value
  foo: 1,
  bar: [
    "baz",
    "quux",

    // The property of the array
    [Symbol.for('after-value:0')]: [{
      type: 'LineComment',
      value: ' after-value:0',
      inline: true,
    loc: ...
    }, ...],
    ...
  ]
}
```

There are **EIGHT** kinds of symbol properties:

```js
// Comments before everything
Symbol.for('before-all')

// If all things inside an object or an array are comments
Symbol.for('before')

// comment tokens before
// - a property of an object
// - an item of an array
// and after the previous comma(`,`) or the opening bracket(`{` or `[`)
Symbol.for(`before:${prop}`)

// comment tokens after property key `prop` and before colon(`:`)
Symbol.for(`after-prop:${prop}`)

// comment tokens after the colon(`:`) of property `prop` and before property value
Symbol.for(`after-colon:${prop}`)

// comment tokens after
// - the value of property `prop` inside an object
// - the item of index `prop` inside an array
// and before the next key-value/item delimiter(`,`)
// or the closing bracket(`}` or `]`)
Symbol.for(`after-value:${prop}`)

// comment tokens after
// - comma(`,`)
// - the value of property `prop` if it is the last property
Symbol.for(`after:${prop}`)

// Comments after everything
Symbol.for('after-all')
```

And the value of each symbol property is an **array** of `CommentToken`

```ts
interface CommentToken {
  type: 'BlockComment' | 'LineComment'
  // The content of the comment, including whitespaces and line breaks
  value: string
  // If the start location is the same line as the previous token,
  // then `inline` is `true`
  inline: boolean

  // But pay attention that,
  // locations will NOT be maintained when stringified
  loc: CommentLocation
}

interface CommentLocation {
  // The start location begins at the `//` or `/*` symbol
  start: Location
  // The end location of multi-line comment ends at the `*/` symbol
  end: Location
}

interface Location {
  line: number
  column: number
}
```

### Query comments in TypeScript

`comment-json` provides a `symbol`-type called `CommentSymbol` which can be used for querying comments.
Furthermore, a type `CommentDescriptor` is provided for enforcing properly formatted symbol names:

```ts
import {
  CommentDescriptor, CommentSymbol, parse
} from 'comment-json'

const parsed = parse(`{ /* test */ "foo": "bar" }`)
 // typescript only allows properly formatted symbol names here
const symbolName: CommentDescriptor: 'before-prop:foo'

console.log(parsed[Symbol.for(symbolName) as CommentSymbol][0].value)
```

In this example, casting to `Symbol.for(symbolName)` to `CommentSymbol` is mandatory.
Otherwise, TypeScript won't detect that you're trying to query comments.

### Parse into an object without comments

```js
console.log(parse(content, null, true))
```

And the result will be:

```js
{
  foo: 1,
  bar: [
    "baz",
    "quux"
  ]
}
```

### Special cases

```js
const parsed = parse(`
// comment
1
`)

console.log(parsed === 1)
// false
```

If we parse a JSON of primative type with `remove_comments:false`, then the return value of `parse()` will be of object type.

The value of `parsed` is equivalent to:

```js
const parsed = new Number(1)

parsed[Symbol.for('before-all')] = [{
  type: 'LineComment',
  value: ' comment',
  inline: false,
  loc: ...
}]
```

Which is similar for:

- `Boolean` type
- `String` type

For example

```js
const parsed = parse(`
"foo" /* comment */
`)
```

Which is equivalent to

```js
const parsed = new String('foo')

parsed[Symbol.for('after-all')] = [{
  type: 'BlockComment',
  value: ' comment ',
  inline: true,
  loc: ...
}]
```

But there is one exception:

```js
const parsed = parse(`
// comment
null
`)

console.log(parsed === null) // true
```

## stringify()

```ts
stringify(object: any, replacer?, space?): string
```

The arguments are the same as the vanilla [`JSON.stringify`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify).

And it does the similar thing as the vanilla one, but also deal with extra properties and convert them into comments.

```js
console.log(stringify(parsed, null, 2))
// Exactly the same as `content`
```

#### space

If space is not specified, or the space is an empty string, the result of `stringify()` will have no comments.

For the case above:

```js
console.log(stringify(result)) // {"a":1}
console.log(stringify(result, null, 2)) // is the same as `code`
```

## assign(target: object, source?: object, keys?: Array<string>)

- **target** `object` the target object
- **source?** `object` the source object. This parameter is optional but it is silly to not pass this argument.
- **keys?** `Array<string>` If not specified, all enumerable own properties of `source` will be used.

This method is used to copy the enumerable own properties and their corresponding comment symbol properties to the target object.

```js
const parsed = parse(`// before all
{
  // This is a comment
  "foo": "bar"
}`)

const obj = assign({
  bar: 'baz'
}, parsed)

stringify(obj, null, 2)
// // before all
// {
//   "bar": "baz",
//   // This is a comment
//   "foo": "bar"
// }
```

### Special cases about `keys`

But if argument `keys` is specified and is not empty, then comment ` before all`, which belongs to no properties, will **NOT** be copied.

```js
const obj = assign({
  bar: 'baz'
}, parsed, ['foo'])

stringify(obj, null, 2)
// {
//   "bar": "baz",
//   // This is a comment
//   "foo": "bar"
// }
```

Specifying the argument `keys` as an empty array indicates that it will only copy non-property symbols of comments

```js
const obj = assign({
  bar: 'baz'
}, parsed, [])

stringify(obj, null, 2)
// // before all
// {
//   "bar": "baz",
// }
```

Non-property symbols include:

```js
Symbol.for('before-all')
Symbol.for('before')
Symbol.for('after-all')
```

## `CommentArray`

> Advanced Section

All arrays of the parsed object are `CommentArray`s.

The constructor of `CommentArray` could be accessed by:

```js
const {CommentArray} = require('comment-json')
```

If we modify a comment array, its comment symbol properties could be handled automatically.

```js
const parsed = parse(`{
  "foo": [
    // bar
    "bar",
    // baz,
    "baz"
  ]
}`)

parsed.foo.unshift('qux')

stringify(parsed, null, 2)
// {
//   "foo": [
//     "qux",
//     // bar
//     "bar",
//     // baz
//     "baz"
//   ]
// }
```

Oh yeah! 😆

But pay attention, if you reassign the property of a comment array with a normal array, all comments will be gone:

```js
parsed.foo = ['quux'].concat(parsed.foo)
stringify(parsed, null, 2)
// {
//   "foo": [
//     "quux",
//     "qux",
//     "bar",
//     "baz"
//   ]
// }

// Whoooops!! 😩 Comments are gone
```

Instead, we should:

```js
parsed.foo = new CommentArray('quux').concat(parsed.foo)
stringify(parsed, null, 2)
// {
//   "foo": [
//     "quux",
//     "qux",
//     // bar
//     "bar",
//     // baz
//     "baz"
//   ]
// }
```

## Special Cases about Trailing Comma

If we have a JSON string `str`

```js
{
  "foo": "bar", // comment
}
```

```js
// When stringify, trailing commas will be eliminated
const stringified = stringify(parse(str), null, 2)
console.log(stringified)
```

And it will print:

```js
{
  "foo": "bar" // comment
}
```

## License

[MIT](LICENSE)

## Change Logs

See [releases](https://github.com/kaelzhang/node-comment-json/releases)
