Read a tiny JSON record.

Recognize labels, values, and types in a common data format.

2 min read 5 min to try

MAKE ROOM FORoneSMALL SKILL

It is data with punctuation.

You may see JSON in an exported file or a developer tool. It can look intimidating, but a small record is readable once you know the landmarks. Curly braces hold an object: a set of named properties with values.

In the example, "title" is a property name and "Morning walk" is a string value. The duration is a number, so 20 has no quotation marks. The reminder value is the boolean true. Commas separate the properties.

Three kinds of values

Text

"title": "Morning walk"

Number and boolean

"minutes": 20 "reminder": true

Quotation marks distinguish strings from these other value types.

The quotes change the type.

The number 20 and the string "20" may look similar to a person, but software can treat them differently. A number is suitable for arithmetic; a string represents text. Do not add quotation marks just to make the formatting look consistent.

JSON has stricter syntax than casual notes. Property names use double quotes, and there is no trailing comma after the last property. Reading those details helps you spot simple mistakes without needing to understand the whole application that produced the file.

A small example to try

{
  "title": "Morning walk",
  "minutes": 20,
  "reminder": true
}

Your turn 5 minutes

Make it yours.

Identify the three property names and their values.
Change minutes to 15 while keeping it a number.
Change reminder to false and explain the difference in plain English.

What changed when you tried it?

A little nudge

JSON uses lowercase true and false, without quotes.

What to look for

The record describes a 15-minute Morning walk with reminder set to false. The title stays text, minutes stays numeric, and reminder stays boolean.

Take it one small step further

Add a location string before the final property, using a comma to separate it.

Keep this bit

Read the value and its type, not just its appearance.