JSON left out Infinity and NaN; JSON status in ECMAScript?

javascript json ecma262
Jason S picture Jason S · Sep 14, 2009 · Viewed 74.1k times · Source

Any idea why JSON left out NaN and +/- Infinity? It puts Javascript in the strange situation where objects that would otherwise be serializable, are not, if they contain NaN or +/- infinity values.

Looks like this has been cast in stone: see RFC4627 and ECMA-262 (section 24.5.2, JSON.stringify, NOTE 4, page 683 of the ECMA-262 pdf at last edit):

Finite numbers are stringified as if by calling ToString(number). NaN and Infinity regardless of sign are represented as the String null.

Answer

olliej picture olliej · Sep 14, 2009

Infinity and NaN aren't keywords or anything special, they are just properties on the global object (as is undefined) and as such can be changed. It's for that reason JSON doesn't include them in the spec -- in essence any true JSON string should have the same result in EcmaScript if you do eval(jsonString) or JSON.parse(jsonString).

If it were allowed then someone could inject code akin to

NaN={valueOf:function(){ do evil }};
Infinity={valueOf:function(){ do evil }};

into a forum (or whatever) and then any json usage on that site could be compromised.

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