json_decode.md

---

aliases:
- ../../configuration-language/standard-library/json_decode/
title: json_decode

---

json_decode

The json_decode function decodes a string representing JSON into a River value. json_decode fails if the string argument provided cannot be parsed as JSON.

A common use case of json_decode is to decode the output of a [local.file][] component to a River value.

Remember to escape double quotes when passing JSON string literals to json_decode.

For example, the JSON value {"key": "value"} is properly represented by the string "{\"key\": \"value\"}".

Examples

> json_decode("15")
15

> json_decode("[1, 2, 3]")
[1, 2, 3]

> json_decode("null")
null

> json_decode("{\"key\": \"value\"}")
{
  key = "value",
}

> json_decode(local.file.some_file.content)
"Hello, world!"

[local.file]: {{< relref "../components/local.file.md" >}}