# JSON.parse and unicode escape?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 27, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948 "2008-08-27T01:30:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jrochkind)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948/1 "2008-08-27T01:30:31Z")

</div>

The documentation for the ruby JSON classes ([http://json.rubyforge.org/](http://json.rubyforge.org/))  
implies that it handles unicode escaping fine. But I’m having trouble  
with parsing JSON with a unicode escape sequence in it. I am using the  
‘ext’ parser (JSON::Ext::Parser) not the ‘pure’ parser. version 1.1.2,  
which appears to still be the latest.

Here is some test JSON, that’s actually an excerpt from some JSON  
returned to me by a third party web service. Finally boiled it down to  
the simplest demonstration case. I saved it in a file, but here’s what’s  
in the text file:

# ===== { “key”: ‘something \x26 more’ }

I believe that is valid json, containing an escaped unicode char? But  
JSON.parse on that string throws, complaining:

JSON::ParserError: unexpected token at '{ “summary”: ’ \u0026 ’ }

I have verified it is the /x26 that’s doing it. It doesn’t like \x  
escaped unicode.

Am I doing something wrong? Is the JSON I am receiving from the third  
party bad somehow? This is such a widely used library that I’d be  
surprised if it’s broken and can’t parse input including unicode escape  
sequences… but that’s what it looks like to me. Feedback?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jrochkind)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948/2 "2008-10-01T06:32:46Z")

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That’s not valid Unicode. See:

> **[UDC00.pdf](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UDC00.pdf)**
>
> 48.08 KB

You can only have that code point in UTF-16

-Rob

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jrochkind)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948/3 "2008-10-01T06:21:03Z")

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I am running into what seems to be a related problem with the  
following code:

irb

> > require ‘json’  
> > =\> true  
> > JSON.parse(‘{“s”:“\uddb0”}’)  
> > JSON::ParserError: source sequence is illegal/malformed near uddb0"}  
> > from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/json-1.1.3/lib/json/common.rb:122:in  
> > `parse' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/json-1.1.3/lib/json/common.rb:122:in `parse’  
> > from (irb):2  
> > from :0

I don’t know enough about unicode to really understand what is being  
escaped here, but the following unicode characters, very close in  
range (I assume) do not throw an error:  
“\ucdb0”, “\uedb0”, “\ud7b0”

I also validated the JSON string (‘{“s”:“\uddb0”}’) successfully at  
[http://www.jsonlint.com/](http://www.jsonlint.com/) and in Python.

Any ideas of what might be the problem?  
Are there any alternative JSON parsers for ruby?

Thank you very much // pascal

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jrochkind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jrochkind)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/json-parse-and-unicode-escape/146948/4 "2008-10-01T19:56:50Z")

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That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the clarification regarding the  
unicode range.

Since I don’t have control over the JSON source, I would like to try to  
parse the JSON even if it results in a malformed unicode string. So  
today I tried switching from ‘json’ to the ‘ruby-json’ library. After  
some searching online, I didn’t find any documentation on how to use it  
though. Primarily I don’t know how to include or require it.

require ‘ruby-json’  
require ‘rubyjson’

don’t seem to work?  
Any ideas are appreaciated.  
Thank you very much  
// pascal