sonic

About sonic

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# Sonic

English | [中文](README_ZH_CN.md)

A blazingly fast JSON serializing & deserializing library, accelerated by JIT (just-in-time compiling) and SIMD (single-instruction-multiple-data).

## Requirement

- Go: 1.18~1.27
  - Notice: Go1.24.0 is not supported due to the [issue](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/71672); please use a higher Go version or pass the build flag `-ldflags="-checklinkname=0"`.
- OS: Linux / MacOS / Windows
- CPU: AMD64 / (ARM64, need go1.20 above)

## Features

- Runtime object binding without code generation
- Complete APIs for JSON value manipulation
- Fast, fast, fast!

## APIs

see [go.dev](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/bytedance/sonic)

## Benchmarks

For **all sizes** of json and **all scenarios** of usage, **Sonic performs best**.

- [Medium](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/decoder/testdata_test.go#L19) (13KB, 300+ key, 6 layers)

```powershell
goversion: 1.17.1
goos: darwin
goarch: amd64
cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz
BenchmarkEncoder_Generic_Sonic-16                      32393 ns/op         402.40 MB/s       11965 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Generic_Sonic_Fast-16                 21668 ns/op         601.57 MB/s       10940 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Generic_JsonIter-16                   42168 ns/op         309.12 MB/s       14345 B/op        115 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Generic_GoJson-16                     65189 ns/op         199.96 MB/s       23261 B/op         16 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Generic_StdLib-16                    106322 ns/op         122.60 MB/s       49136 B/op        789 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Binding_Sonic-16                       6269 ns/op        2079.26 MB/s       14173 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Binding_Sonic_Fast-16                  5281 ns/op        2468.16 MB/s       12322 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Binding_JsonIter-16                   20056 ns/op         649.93 MB/s        9488 B/op          2 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Binding_GoJson-16                      8311 ns/op        1568.32 MB/s        9481 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Binding_StdLib-16                     16448 ns/op         792.52 MB/s        9479 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Generic_Sonic-16              6681 ns/op        1950.93 MB/s       12738 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Generic_Sonic_Fast-16         4179 ns/op        3118.99 MB/s       10757 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Generic_JsonIter-16           9861 ns/op        1321.84 MB/s       14362 B/op        115 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Generic_GoJson-16            18850 ns/op         691.52 MB/s       23278 B/op         16 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Generic_StdLib-16            45902 ns/op         283.97 MB/s       49174 B/op        789 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Binding_Sonic-16              1480 ns/op        8810.09 MB/s       13049 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Binding_Sonic_Fast-16         1209 ns/op        10785.23 MB/s      11546 B/op          4 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Binding_JsonIter-16           6170 ns/op        2112.58 MB/s        9504 B/op          2 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Binding_GoJson-16             3321 ns/op        3925.52 MB/s        9496 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkEncoder_Parallel_Binding_StdLib-16             3739 ns/op        3486.49 MB/s        9480 B/op          1 allocs/op

BenchmarkDecoder_Generic_Sonic-16                      66812 ns/op         195.10 MB/s       57602 B/op        723 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Generic_Sonic_Fast-16                 54523 ns/op         239.07 MB/s       49786 B/op        313 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Generic_StdLib-16                    124260 ns/op         104.90 MB/s       50869 B/op        772 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Generic_JsonIter-16                   91274 ns/op         142.81 MB/s       55782 B/op       1068 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Generic_GoJson-16                     88569 ns/op         147.17 MB/s       66367 B/op        973 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Binding_Sonic-16                      32557 ns/op         400.38 MB/s       28302 B/op        137 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Binding_Sonic_Fast-16                 28649 ns/op         455.00 MB/s       24999 B/op         34 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Binding_StdLib-16                    111437 ns/op         116.97 MB/s       10576 B/op        208 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Binding_JsonIter-16                   35090 ns/op         371.48 MB/s       14673 B/op        385 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Binding_GoJson-16                     28738 ns/op         453.59 MB/s       22039 B/op         49 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Generic_Sonic-16             12321 ns/op        1057.91 MB/s       57233 B/op        723 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Generic_Sonic_Fast-16        10644 ns/op        1224.64 MB/s       49362 B/op        313 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Generic_StdLib-16            57587 ns/op         226.35 MB/s       50874 B/op        772 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Generic_JsonIter-16          38666 ns/op         337.12 MB/s       55789 B/op       1068 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Generic_GoJson-16            30259 ns/op         430.79 MB/s       66370 B/op        974 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Binding_Sonic-16              5965 ns/op        2185.28 MB/s       27747 B/op        137 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Binding_Sonic_Fast-16         5170 ns/op        2521.31 MB/s       24715 B/op         34 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Binding_StdLib-16            27582 ns/op         472.58 MB/s       10576 B/op        208 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Binding_JsonIter-16          13571 ns/op         960.51 MB/s       14685 B/op        385 allocs/op
BenchmarkDecoder_Parallel_Binding_GoJson-16            10031 ns/op        1299.51 MB/s       22111 B/op         49 allocs/op

BenchmarkGetOne_Sonic-16                                3276 ns/op        3975.78 MB/s          24 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkGetOne_Gjson-16                                9431 ns/op        1380.81 MB/s           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
BenchmarkGetOne_Jsoniter-16                            51178 ns/op         254.46 MB/s       27936 B/op        647 allocs/op
BenchmarkGetOne_Parallel_Sonic-16                      216.7 ns/op       60098.95 MB/s          24 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkGetOne_Parallel_Gjson-16                       1076 ns/op        12098.62 MB/s          0 B/op          0 allocs/op
BenchmarkGetOne_Parallel_Jsoniter-16                   17741 ns/op         734.06 MB/s       27945 B/op        647 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Sonic-16                               9571 ns/op         1360.61 MB/s        1584 B/op         17 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Sjson-16                               36456 ns/op         357.22 MB/s       52180 B/op          9 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Jsoniter-16                            79475 ns/op         163.86 MB/s       45862 B/op        964 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Parallel_Sonic-16                      850.9 ns/op       15305.31 MB/s        1584 B/op         17 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Parallel_Sjson-16                      18194 ns/op         715.77 MB/s       52247 B/op          9 allocs/op
BenchmarkSetOne_Parallel_Jsoniter-16                   33560 ns/op         388.05 MB/s       45892 B/op        964 allocs/op
BenchmarkLoadNode/LoadAll()-16                         11384 ns/op        1143.93 MB/s        6307 B/op         25 allocs/op
BenchmarkLoadNode_Parallel/LoadAll()-16                 5493 ns/op        2370.68 MB/s        7145 B/op         25 allocs/op
BenchmarkLoadNode/Interface()-16                       17722 ns/op         734.85 MB/s       13323 B/op         88 allocs/op
BenchmarkLoadNode_Parallel/Interface()-16              10330 ns/op        1260.70 MB/s       15178 B/op         88 allocs/op
```

- [Small](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/testdata/small.go) (400B, 11 keys, 3 layers)
![small benchmarks](./docs/imgs/bench-small.png)
- [Large](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/testdata/twitter.json) (635KB, 10000+ key, 6 layers)
![large benchmarks](./docs/imgs/bench-large.png)

See [bench.sh](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/scripts/bench.sh) for benchmark codes.

## How it works

See [INTRODUCTION.md](./docs/INTRODUCTION.md).

## Usage

### Marshal/Unmarshal

Default behaviors are mostly consistent with `encoding/json`, except HTML escaping form (see [Escape HTML](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/README.md#escape-html)) and `SortKeys` feature (optional support see [Sort Keys](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/README.md#sort-keys)) that is **NOT** in conformity to [RFC8259](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259).

 ```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"

var data YourSchema
// Marshal
output, err := sonic.Marshal(&data)
// Unmarshal
err := sonic.Unmarshal(output, &data)
 ```

### Streaming IO

Sonic supports decoding json from `io.Reader` or encoding objects into `io.Writer`, aims at handling multiple values as well as reducing memory consumption.

- encoder

```go
var o1 = map[string]interface{}{
    "a": "b",
}
var o2 = 1
var w = bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
var enc = sonic.ConfigDefault.NewEncoder(w)
enc.Encode(o1)
enc.Encode(o2)
fmt.Println(w.String())
// Output:
// {"a":"b"}
// 1
```

- decoder

```go
var o =  map[string]interface{}{}
var r = strings.NewReader(`{"a":"b"}{"1":"2"}`)
var dec = sonic.ConfigDefault.NewDecoder(r)
dec.Decode(&o)
dec.Decode(&o)
fmt.Printf("%+v", o)
// Output:
// map[1:2 a:b]
```

### Use Number/Use Int64

 ```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic/decoder"

var input = `1`
var data interface{}

// default float64
dc := decoder.NewDecoder(input)
dc.Decode(&data) // data == float64(1)
// use json.Number
dc = decoder.NewDecoder(input)
dc.UseNumber()
dc.Decode(&data) // data == json.Number("1")
// use int64
dc = decoder.NewDecoder(input)
dc.UseInt64()
dc.Decode(&data) // data == int64(1)

root, err := sonic.GetFromString(input)
// Get json.Number
jn := root.Number()
jm := root.InterfaceUseNumber().(json.Number) // jn == jm
// Get float64
fn := root.Float64()
fm := root.Interface().(float64) // jn == jm
 ```

### Sort Keys

On account of the performance loss from sorting (roughly 10%), sonic doesn't enable this feature by default. If your component depends on it to work (like [zstd](https://github.com/facebook/zstd)), Use it like this:

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic/encoder"

// Binding map only
m := map[string]interface{}{}
v, err := encoder.Encode(m, encoder.SortMapKeys)

// Or ast.Node.SortKeys() before marshal
var root := sonic.Get(JSON)
err := root.SortKeys()
```

### Escape HTML

On account of the performance loss (roughly 15%), sonic doesn't enable this feature by default. You can use `encoder.EscapeHTML` option to open this feature (align with `encoding/json.HTMLEscape`).

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"

v := map[string]string{"&&":"<>"}
ret, err := Encode(v, EscapeHTML) // ret == `{"\u0026\u0026":{"X":"\u003c\u003e"}}`
```

### Compact Format

Sonic encodes primitive objects (struct/map...) as compact-format JSON by default, except marshaling `json.RawMessage` or `json.Marshaler`: sonic ensures validating their output JSON but **DO NOT** compacting them for performance concerns. We provide the option `encoder.CompactMarshaler` to add compacting process.

### Print Error

If there invalid syntax in input JSON, sonic will return `decoder.SyntaxError`, which supports pretty-printing of error position

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic/decoder"

var data interface{}
err := sonic.UnmarshalString("[[[}]]", &data)
if err != nil {
    /* One line by default */
    println(e.Error()) // "Syntax error at index 3: invalid char\n\n\t[[[}]]\n\t...^..\n"
    /* Pretty print */
    if e, ok := err.(decoder.SyntaxError); ok {
        /*Syntax error at index 3: invalid char

            [[[}]]
            ...^..
        */
        print(e.Description())
    } else if me, ok := err.(*decoder.MismatchTypeError); ok {
        // decoder.MismatchTypeError is new to Sonic v1.6.0
        print(me.Description())
    }
}
```

#### Mismatched Types [Sonic v1.6.0]

If there a **mismatch-typed** value for a given key, sonic will report `decoder.MismatchTypeError` (if there are many, report the last one), but still skip wrong the value and keep decoding next JSON.

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic/decoder"

var data = struct{
    A int
    B int
}{}
err := UnmarshalString(`{"A":"1","B":1}`, &data)
println(err.Error())    // Mismatch type int with value string "at index 5: mismatched type with value\n\n\t{\"A\":\"1\",\"B\":1}\n\t.....^.........\n"
fmt.Printf("%+v", data) // {A:0 B:1}
```

### Ast.Node

Sonic/ast.Node is a completely self-contained AST for JSON. It implements serialization and deserialization both and provides robust APIs for obtaining and modification of generic data.

#### Get/Index

Search partial JSON by given paths, which must be non-negative integer or string, or nil

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"

input := []byte(`{"key1":[{},{"key2":{"key3":[1,2,3]}}]}`)

// no path, returns entire json
root, err := sonic.Get(input)
raw := root.Raw() // == string(input)

// multiple paths
root, err := sonic.Get(input, "key1", 1, "key2")
sub := root.Get("key3").Index(2).Int64() // == 3
```

**Tip**: since `Index()` uses offset to locate data, which is much faster than scanning like `Get()`, we suggest you use it as much as possible. And sonic also provides another API `IndexOrGet()` to underlying use offset as well as ensure the key is matched.

#### SearchOption

`Searcher` provides some options for user to meet different needs:

```go
opts := ast.SearchOption{ CopyReturn: true ... }
val, err := sonic.GetWithOptions(JSON, opts, "key")
```

- CopyReturn
Indicate the searcher to copy the result JSON string instead of refer from the input. This can help to reduce memory usage if you cache the results
- ConcurentRead
Since `ast.Node` use `Lazy-Load` design, it doesn't support Concurrently-Read by default. If you want to read it concurrently, please specify it.
- ValidateJSON
Indicate the searcher to validate the entire JSON. This option is enabled by default, which slow down the search speed a little.

#### Set/Unset

Modify the json content by Set()/Unset()

```go
import "github.com/bytedance/sonic"

// Set
exist, err := root.Set("key4", NewBool(true)) // exist == false
alias1 := root.Get("key4")
println(alias1.Valid()) // true
alias2 := root.Index(1)
println(alias1 == alias2) // true

// Unset
exist, err := root.UnsetByIndex(1) // exist == true
println(root.Get("key4").Check()) // "value not exist"
```

#### Serialize

To encode `ast.Node` as json, use `MarshalJson()` or `json.Marshal()` (MUST pass the node's pointer)

```go
import (
    "encoding/json"
    "github.com/bytedance/sonic"
)

buf, err := root.MarshalJson()
println(string(buf))                // {"key1":[{},{"key2":{"key3":[1,2,3]}}]}
exp, err := json.Marshal(&root)     // WARN: use pointer
println(string(buf) == string(exp)) // true
```

#### APIs

- validation: `Check()`, `Error()`, `Valid()`, `Exist()`
- searching: `Index()`, `Get()`, `IndexPair()`, `IndexOrGet()`, `GetByPath()`
- go-type casting: `Int64()`, `Float64()`, `String()`, `Number()`, `Bool()`, `Map[UseNumber|UseNode]()`, `Array[UseNumber|UseNode]()`, `Interface[UseNumber|UseNode]()`
- go-type packing: `NewRaw()`, `NewNumber()`, `NewNull()`, `NewBool()`, `NewString()`, `NewObject()`, `NewArray()`
- iteration: `Values()`, `Properties()`, `ForEach()`, `SortKeys()`
- modification: `Set()`, `SetByIndex()`, `Add()`

### Ast.Visitor

Sonic provides an advanced API for fully parsing JSON into non-standard types (neither `struct` not `map[string]interface{}`) without using any intermediate representation (`ast.Node` or `interface{}`). For example, you might have the following types which are like `interface{}` but actually not `interface{}`:

```go
type UserNode interface {}

// the following types implement the UserNode interface.
type (
    UserNull    struct{}
    UserBool    struct{ Value bool }
    UserInt64   struct{ Value int64 }
    UserFloat64 struct{ Value float64 }
    UserString  struct{ Value string }
    UserObject  struct{ Value map[string]UserNode }
    UserArray   struct{ Value []UserNode }
)
```

Sonic provides the following API to return **the preorder traversal of a JSON AST**. The `ast.Visitor` is a SAX style interface which is used in some C++ JSON library. You should implement `ast.Visitor` by yourself and pass it to `ast.Preorder()` method. In your visitor you can make your custom types to represent JSON values. There may be an O(n) space container (such as stack) in your visitor to record the object / array hierarchy.

```go
func Preorder(str string, visitor Visitor, opts *VisitorOptions) error

type Visitor interface {
    OnNull() error
    OnBool(v bool) error
    OnString(v string) error
    OnInt64(v int64, n json.Number) error
    OnFloat64(v float64, n json.Number) error
    OnObjectBegin(capacity int) error
    OnObjectKey(key string) error
    OnObjectEnd() error
    OnArrayBegin(capacity int) error
    OnArrayEnd() error
}
```

See [ast/visitor.go](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/ast/visitor.go) for detailed usage. We also implement a demo visitor for `UserNode` in [ast/visitor_test.go](https://github.com/bytedance/sonic/blob/main/ast/visitor_test.go).

## Compatibility

For developers who want to use sonic to meet different scenarios, we provide some integrated configs as `sonic.API`

- `ConfigDefault`: the sonic's default config (`EscapeHTML=false`,`SortKeys=false`...) to run sonic fast meanwhile ensure security.
- `ConfigStd`: the std-compatible config (`EscapeHTML=true`,`SortKeys=true`...)
- `ConfigFastest`: the fastest config (`NoQuoteTextMarshaler=true`) to run on sonic as fast as possible.
Sonic **DOES NOT** ensure to support all environments, due to the difficulty of developing high-performance codes. On non-sonic-supporting environment, the implementation will fall back to `encoding/json`. Thus below configs will all equal to `ConfigStd`.

## Tips

### Pretouch

Since Sonic uses [golang-asm](https://github.com/twitchyliquid64/golang-asm) as a JIT assembler, which is NOT very suitable for runtime compiling, first-hit running of a huge schema may cause request-timeout or even process-OOM. For better stability, we advise **using `PretouchMany()` for huge-schema or lantency-sensitive applications** before `Marshal()/Unmarshal()`.

```go
import (
    "reflect"
    "github.com/bytedance/sonic"
    "github.com/bytedance/sonic/option"
)

func init() {
    var v1 HugeStruct1
    var v2 HugeStruct2

    // For most large types (nesting depth <= option.DefaultMaxInlineDepth)
    sonic.PretouchMany([]reflect.Type{reflect.TypeOf(v1), reflect.TypeOf(v2)},
        // If the type is too deep nesting (nesting depth > option.DefaultMaxInlineDepth),
        // you can set more recursive loops in Pretouch for fully sufficient JIT.
        option.WithCompileRecursiveDepth(loop),
        // For a large struct, try to set a smaller depth to reduce compiling time.
        option.WithCompileMaxInlineDepth(depth),
    )
}
```

### Copy string

Frequently Asked Questions