Minify and prettify
JSONs can come in different formats. Take these two JSONs, that are in fact exactly the same: the first one is in a minified format, the second one is in a pretty format with indentation, whitespace and new lines:
# Mini
{"a":1,"b":2,"c":{"x":5,"y":6}}
# Pretty
{
"a": 1,
"b": 2,
"c": {
"x": 5,
"y": 6
}
}
Unless you're a computer, you surely prefer the second version. However, the standard form that toJSON()
returns, is the minified version, as it is more concise. You can adapt this behavior by setting the pretty
argument inside toJSON()
to TRUE
. If you already have a JSON string, you can use prettify()
or minify()
to make the JSON pretty or as concise as possible.
This exercise is part of the course
Intermediate Importing Data in R
Exercise instructions
- Convert the
mtcars
dataset, which is available in R by default, to a prettyJSON
. Call the resulting JSONpretty_json
. - Print out
pretty_json
. Can you understand the output easily? - Convert
pretty_json
to a minimal version usingminify()
. Store this version under a new variable,mini_json
. - Print out
mini_json
. Which version do you prefer, the pretty one or the minified one?
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# jsonlite is already loaded
# Convert mtcars to a pretty JSON: pretty_json
# Print pretty_json
# Minify pretty_json: mini_json
# Print mini_json