BSON

BSON

Filename extension	.bson
Type of format	Data interchange

BSON (pronounced /ˈbĭsɒn/) is a computer data interchange format. It is a binary form for representing simple data structures and associative arrays (called objects or documents). The name "BSON" is based on the term JSON and informally means "Binary JSON".

Data types and syntax

BSON documents (objects) consist of a well ordered list of elements. Each element consists of a field name, a type, and a value. Field names are strings. Types include:

• string
• integer
• double
• date
• byte array (binary data)
• boolean (true and false)
• null
• BSON object

This is nominally a superset of JSON types (JSON does not have a byte array type, for example), but because of length limitations, some valid JSON values (such as very long strings) are not valid BSON values.

Efficiency

Compared to JSON, BSON is efficient both in storage space and scan-speed. Large elements in a BSON document are prefixed with a length field to facilitate scanning.

See also

• JSON
• Protocol Buffers
• Document-oriented database

External links

• BSON Specification