json-stringify-pretty-compact

The output of JSON.stringify comes in two flavors: compact and pretty. The former is usually too compact to be read by humans, while the latter sometimes is too spacious. This module trades performance for a compromise between the two. The result is a pretty compact string, where “pretty” means both “kind of” and “nice”.

{
  "bool": true,
  "short array": [1, 2, 3],
  "long array": [
    {"x": 1, "y": 2},
    {"x": 2, "y": 1},
    {"x": 1, "y": 1},
    {"x": 2, "y": 2}
  ]
}

While the “pretty” mode of JSON.stringify puts every item of arrays and objects on its own line, this module puts the whole array or object on a single line, unless the line becomes too long (the default maximum is 80 characters). Making arrays and objects multi-line is the only attempt made to enforce the maximum line length; if that doesn’t help then so be it.

Installation

npm install json-stringify-pretty-compact

const stringify = require("json-stringify-pretty-compact");

stringify(obj, options = {})

It’s like JSON.stringify(obj, options.replacer, options.indent), except that objects and arrays are on one line if they fit (according to options.maxLength).

options:

• indent: Defaults to 2. Works exactly like the third parameter of JSON.stringify.
• maxLength: Defaults to 80. Lines will be tried to be kept at maximum this many characters long.
• replacer: Defaults to undefined. Works exactly like the second parameter of JSON.stringify.

stringify(obj, {maxLength: 0, indent: indent}) gives the exact same result as JSON.stringify(obj, null, indent). (However, if you use a replacer, integer keys might be moved first.)

stringify(obj, {maxLength: Infinity}) gives the exact same result as JSON.stringify(obj), except that there are spaces after colons and commas.

Want more options? Check out @aitodotai/json-stringify-pretty-compact!

Development

You need Node.js 10 and npm 6.

npm scripts

• npm run eslint: Run ESLint (including Prettier).
• npm run eslint:fix: Autofix ESLint errors.
• npm run prettier: Run Prettier for files other than JS.
• npm run jest: Run unit tests. During development, npm run jest -- --watch is nice.
• npm run coverage: Run unit tests with code coverage.
• npm test: Check that everything works.

License

MIT.