# Binary Formats Though JSON is a ubiquitous data format, it is not a very compact format suitable for data exchange, for instance, over a network. Hence, the library supports - [BJData](bjdata.md) (Binary JData), - [BSON](bson.md) (Binary JSON), - [CBOR](cbor.md) (Concise Binary Object Representation), - [MessagePack](messagepack.md), and - [UBJSON](ubjson.md) (Universal Binary JSON) to efficiently encode JSON values to byte vectors and to decode such vectors. ## Comparison ### Completeness | Format | Serialization | Deserialization | |-------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------| | BJData | complete | complete | | BSON | incomplete: top-level value must be an object | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported | | CBOR | complete | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported | | MessagePack | complete | complete | | UBJSON | complete | complete | ### Binary values | Format | Binary values | Binary subtypes | |-------------|---------------|-----------------| | BJData | not supported | not supported | | BSON | supported | supported | | CBOR | supported | supported | | MessagePack | supported | supported | | UBJSON | not supported | not supported | See [binary values](../binary_values.md) for more information. ### Sizes | Format | canada.json | twitter.json | citm_catalog.json | jeopardy.json | |--------------------|-------------|--------------|-------------------|---------------| | BJData | 53.2 % | 91.1 % | 78.1 % | 96.6 % | | BJData (size) | 58.6 % | 92.1 % | 86.7 % | 97.4 % | | BJData (size+tyoe) | 58.6 % | 92.1 % | 86.5 % | 97.4 % | | BSON | 85.8 % | 95.2 % | 95.8 % | 106.7 % | | CBOR | 50.5 % | 86.3 % | 68.4 % | 88.0 % | | MessagePack | 50.5 % | 86.0 % | 68.5 % | 87.9 % | | UBJSON | 53.2 % | 91.3 % | 78.2 % | 96.6 % | | UBJSON (size) | 58.6 % | 92.3 % | 86.8 % | 97.4 % | | UBJSON (size+type) | 55.9 % | 92.3 % | 85.0 % | 95.0 % | Sizes compared to minified JSON value.