"Jasper" <notaround@d...> wrote in message 
news:2p-dnWHym_54YPzaRVnyvAA@p......
> Hi, Maybe this is off-topic, but perhaps you can help. I'm looking for 
> ideas on how to parse a data file.
>
> I dont know XML but I know it parses data in text format.
>
> I have a structured data file of the general form shown below. I dont have 
> any definition of the data. Basically it looks like it is hierarchical, 
> token/data pairs defined by brackets and square brackets.
>
> I would like to parse this out into some sort of data object(s) in C++  so 
> that I can gain programmatic access to the variables.
>
> My app is C++ so the solution must be the same. Also it must be very 
> lightweight and *very* fast as I must decode multiple pages in realtime.
>
> Would adapting an XML parser to do this be a possible solution?
>
> Any pointers/ideas/references/code snippets/observations appreciated.
>
> TIA
>
> Basic example showing data structure (whitespaces and carriage returns 
> added by me for clarity).
>
> {
>
> "teacher":{
>  "name":
>    "Mr Borat",
>  "age":
>    "35",
>  "Nationality":
>    "Kazakhstan"},
>
>
> "Class":{
>  "Semester":
>    "Summer",
>  "Room":
>    null,
>  "Subject":
>    "Politics",
>  "Notes":
>    "We're happy, you happy?"},
>
> "Students":
> [
> {
>  "Smith":
>    [{"First Name":"Mary","sex":"Female"}],
>  "Brown":
>    [{"First Name":"John","sex":"Male"}],
>  "Jackson":
>    [{"First Name":"Jackie","sex":"Female"}]
> }
> ],
>
>
> "Grades":
> [
> {
>  "Test":
> 
> [{"grade":"A","points":68},{"grade":"B","points":25},{"grade":"C","points":15}],
>  "Test":
> 
> [{"grade":"C","points":2},{"grade":"B","points":29},{"grade":"A","points":55}],
>  "Test":
> 
> [{"grade":"C","points":2},{"grade":"A","points":72},{"grade":"A","points":65}]
> }
> ]
>
> }
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Looks like JSON to me, search for a JSON library.
JSON is a way of representing objects using string literals that is used for 
passing information to clients that use JavaScript.

-- 

Joe Fawcett (MVP - XML)
http://joe.fawcett.name