JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is the other data interchange format discussed in this chapter. Like XML, it is text-based and human readable, but it also more lightweight than its counterpart. Data sent in the JSON format will take up a lot less bandwidth when data is sent over a network connection. It is used more and more in web applications today. XML files are heavier - just notice how many pages we needed to provide some examples, and requires a parser of some sort to process the data.

JSON is derived from JavaScript, and JSON code looks a lot like JavaScript objects, but there are subtle differences. However, JavaScript can be used to process JSON data, so you would not need a separate parser, as is the case with XML. Here is the same data from the california.xml example, but in the JSON format:

[
   {
    "name":"Adams",
     "first":"Ansel",
     "profession":"photographer",
     "born":"San Francisco"
  },
  {
    "name":"Muir",
     "first":"John",
     "profession":"naturalist...