Data formats¶
There are several data formats that are used to handle data. This includes XML, CSV, JSON, etc. Scrapple provides support for storing extracted data in two formats :
- Javascript Object Notation (JSON)
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
JSON¶
Javascript Object Notation (JSON) files are easy to understand and create. They are easy to parse through, understand and write. It is a language independent format and hence many of the APIs use them as a data-interchange format.
Few data types in JSON are :
- Object: It is an unordered set of name/value pairs.
- Array: It is a set of values of same data type. It is enclosed in a square bracket and the name-value pairs are separated by a comma.
- Name: It is the field that describes the data.
- Value: It is the input data for the name attribute. It can be a number, a Boolean value(true or false), a character(inserted between single quotes) or a string(inserted between double quotes).
For example,
{
"subject": "Computer Science",
"data": [
# Array
{
# Object
"name": "John", # String
"marks": 96, # Integer
"passed": true # Boolean
},
{
"name": "Doe",
"marks": 33,
"passed": false
}
]
}
CSV¶
Comma Separated Values (CSV) files consists of tabular data where the fields are separated by a comma and the records by a line. It is stored in plain-text format. CSV files are easy to handle and manipulate.
For example,
Name | Marks | Grade | Promotion |
---|---|---|---|
John | 96 | O | True |
Doe | 45 | F | False |
can be represented as,
John,96,O,True
Doe,45,F,False