What is JSON and why would I use it?

Question

I\'ve looked on wikipedia and Googled it and read the official documentation, but I still haven\'t got to the point where I really understand what JSON is, and why I\'d use

Answer 1

JSON(Javascript object notation) is a light weight data format for data exchange/transfer. Its in key value pair as the JavaScript is. For REST API its widely used for data transfer from server to client. Nowadays many of the social media sites are using this. Although I don't see this as robust as XML with respect of data types. XML has very rich datatypes and XSD. JSON is bit lacking in this.

For same amount of string data JSON will be lighter compare to XML as XML has all that opening and closing tags, etc...