bash
jq empty input.jsonNotes
`jq empty` is concise and script-friendly for validation-only workflows.
JSON Validation and Common Errors
How to validate JSON, spot parse failures, repair common mistakes, and debug malformed payloads quickly.
Export
Copy the compact sheet, download it, or print it.
Download
`D` dense toggle · `C` copy all
Validate JSON files
Fast ways to check whether a document is valid JSON.
bash
python -m json.tool input.jsonNotes
A built-in option that many systems already have.
bash
node -e 'JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync("input.json", "utf8")); console.log("valid")'Notes
Useful in JavaScript-heavy environments.
Common parse failures
The mistakes most likely to break a JSON payload.
json
{ "name": "Ada" }Notes
`{ 'name': 'Ada' }` is invalid JSON.
json
[
1,
2,
3
]Notes
`[1,2,3,]` is invalid JSON.
json
{ "enabled": true }Notes
`{ enabled: true }` is valid in some JavaScript objects but not in JSON.
Raw newlines inside strings are invalid
Use `\n` rather than an actual line break inside a string literal.
jsonANYjsonstringserrors
json
{
"text": "line 1
line 2"
}Notes
A raw line break inside the quotes breaks parsing.
bash
jq . broken-or-ugly.json > normalized.jsonNotes
This is useful once the file parses and you want a canonical pretty form.
More in JSON
JSONL and NDJSON
Newline-delimited JSON patterns for logs, streams, ETL, and large-file processing workflows.
JSON API Payload Patterns
Reusable JSON payload shapes for APIs: envelopes, pagination, errors, metadata, partial updates, and event-style messages.
JSON Schema Validation
Practical JSON Schema examples for required fields, types, enums, arrays, nested objects, and validation workflows.
JSON Formatting, Minifying, and Pretty-Printing
Commands and patterns for compact JSON, human-readable formatting, stable sorting, and terminal-friendly inspection.
JSON Escaping and Encoding
Escape sequences, Unicode, URLs, embedded JSON strings, and encoding pitfalls when storing or transporting JSON.
JSON Objects and Arrays
Patterns for nested objects, arrays, list items, nullability, and common data-shape decisions in JSON.