json.encode - Real Function Reference

json.encode(value: any, options?: EncodeOptions): string

Arguments

any

required

Value to encode. nil, booleans, numbers, strings, tables, and json.null are handled directly. Unsupported Lua types encode as null unless errorOnUnsupported is true.

EncodeOptions

Optional encode options. A boolean toggles pretty output. A number enables pretty output with that many spaces clamped to 0.16. A string enables pretty output with that indent. A table can set pretty, sortKeys, emptyTableAsArray, errorOnUnsupported, encodeInvalidNumbersAsNull, maxDepth, and indent.

Returns

string

Encoded JSON string. Encoding errors are thrown as Luau errors.

Types

EncodeOptions

Controls JSON serialization and formatting.

Name	Type	Required	Description
`pretty`	`boolean`	No	Enables formatted, multi-line JSON output.
`sortKeys`	`boolean`	No	Sorts object keys before encoding.
`emptyTableAsArray`	`boolean`	No	Encodes an empty table as an array instead of an object.
`errorOnUnsupported`	`boolean`	No	Raises an error instead of substituting unsupported values.
`encodeInvalidNumbersAsNull`	`boolean`	No	Encodes NaN and infinite numbers as JSON null.
`maxDepth`	`integer`	No	Sets the maximum nesting depth, clamped from 1 to 4096.
`indent`	`string`	No	Sets the indentation string, limited to 32 characters.

Example

Encode JSON-compatible values, using json.array when an empty array must stay an array.

local payload = {
    name = "Real",
    enabled = true,
    tags = json.array({ "api", "docs" }),
    missing = json.null,
}

local text = json.encode(payload, {
    sortKeys = true,
})

print(text)

​Arguments

​Returns

​Types

​EncodeOptions

​Example

Arguments

Returns

Types

EncodeOptions

Example