Structured Data

Add these crates to your own project:

cargo add serde --features derive
cargo add byteorder serde_json toml

Serialize and deserialize unstructured JSON

The serde_json crate provides a from_str function to parse a &str of JSON.

Unstructured JSON can be parsed into a universal serde_json::Value type that is able to represent any valid JSON data.

The example below shows a &str (reference to a string slice) of JSON being parsed. The expected value is declared using the json! macro.

use serde_json::json;
use serde_json::{Value, Error};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let j = r#"{
                 "userid": 103609,
                 "verified": true,
                 "access_privileges": [
                   "user",
                   "admin"
                 ]
               }"#;

    let parsed: Value = serde_json::from_str(j)?;

    let expected = json!({
        "userid": 103609,
        "verified": true,
        "access_privileges": [
            "user",
            "admin"
        ]
    });

    assert_eq!(parsed, expected);

    Ok(())
}

Note the use of raw strings with the r#" and "#.

Deserialize a TOML configuration file

Parse some TOML into a universal toml::Value that is able to represent any valid TOML data.

use toml::{Value, de::Error};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let toml_content = r#"
          [package]
          name = "your_package"
          version = "0.1.0"
          authors = ["You! <you@example.org>"]

          [dependencies]
          serde = "1.0"
          "#;

    let package_info: Value = toml::from_str(toml_content)?;

    assert_eq!(package_info["dependencies"]["serde"].as_str(), Some("1.0"));
    assert_eq!(package_info["package"]["name"].as_str(),
               Some("your_package"));

    Ok(())
}

Parse TOML into your own structs using Serde.

use serde::Deserialize;

use toml::de::Error;
use std::collections::HashMap;

#[derive(Deserialize)]
struct Config {
    package: Package,
    dependencies: HashMap<String, String>,
}

#[derive(Deserialize)]
struct Package {
    name: String,
    version: String,
    authors: Vec<String>,
}

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let toml_content = r#"
          [package]
          name = "your_package"
          version = "0.1.0"
          authors = ["You! <you@example.org>"]

          [dependencies]
          serde = "1.0"
          "#;

    let package_info: Config = toml::from_str(toml_content)?;

    assert_eq!(package_info.package.name, "your_package");
    assert_eq!(package_info.package.version, "0.1.0");
    assert_eq!(package_info.package.authors, vec!["You! <you@example.org>"]);
    assert_eq!(package_info.dependencies["serde"], "1.0");

    Ok(())
}

Read and write integers in little-endian byte order

byteorder can reverse the significant bytes of structured data. This may be necessary when receiving information over the network, such that bytes received are from another system.

use byteorder::{LittleEndian, ReadBytesExt, WriteBytesExt};
use std::io::Error;

#[derive(Default, PartialEq, Debug)]
struct Payload {
    kind: u8,
    value: u16,
}

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let original_payload = Payload::default();
    let encoded_bytes = encode(&original_payload)?;
    println!("encoded bytes: {:?}", encoded_bytes);
    let decoded_payload = decode(&encoded_bytes)?;
    assert_eq!(original_payload, decoded_payload);
    Ok(())
}

fn encode(payload: &Payload) -> Result<Vec<u8>, Error> {
    let mut bytes = vec![];
    bytes.write_u8(payload.kind)?;
    bytes.write_u16::<LittleEndian>(payload.value)?;
    Ok(bytes)
}

fn decode(mut bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<Payload, Error> {
    let payload = Payload {
        kind: bytes.read_u8()?,
        value: bytes.read_u16::<LittleEndian>()?,
    };
    Ok(payload)
}