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# Binary Formats

Though JSON is a ubiquitous data format, it is not a very compact format suitable for data exchange, for instance over a network. Hence, the library supports

- BJData (Binary JData),
- BSON (Binary JSON),
- CBOR (Concise Binary Object Representation),
- MessagePack, and
- UBJSON (Universal Binary JSON)

to efficiently encode JSON values to byte vectors and to decode such vectors.

## Comparison

### Completeness

Format | Serialization | Deserialization
--- | --- | ---
BJData | complete | complete
BSON | incomplete: top-level value must be an object | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported
CBOR | complete | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported
MessagePack | complete | complete
UBJSON | complete | complete

### Binary values

Format | Binary values | Binary subtypes
--- | --- | ---
BJData | not supported | not supported
BSON | supported | supported
CBOR | supported | supported
MessagePack | supported | supported
UBJSON | not supported | not supported

See binary values for more information.

### Sizes

Format | canada.json | twitter.json | citm_catalog.json | jeopardy.json
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
BJData | 53.2 % | 91.1 % | 78.1 % | 96.6 %
BJData (size) | 58.6 % | 92.1 % | 86.7 % | 97.4 %
BJData (size+tyoe) | 58.6 % | 92.1 % | 86.5 % | 97.4 %
BSON | 85.8 % | 95.2 % | 95.8 % | 106.7 %
CBOR | 50.5 % | 86.3 % | 68.4 % | 88.0 %
MessagePack | 50.5 % | 86.0 % | 68.5 % | 87.9 %
UBJSON | 53.2 % | 91.3 % | 78.2 % | 96.6 %
UBJSON (size) | 58.6 % | 92.3 % | 86.8 % | 97.4 %
UBJSON (size+type) | 55.9 % | 92.3 % | 85.0 % | 95.0 %

Sizes compared to minified JSON value.

Last update: May 17, 2022
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