Since JSON is such a well defined construct simple parsers are very easy to write. I have a few. The nub is of course in 'a few'. It really falls into the case usage arena. If you know the data a quick regex parser will do. Regex parsers are fundamentally flawed though, and tend to fail on large data sets containing mixed characters (locale is a pain). So, well-formedness is largely there already. Two dimensional arrays only require a few lines of code. Multi dimensional arrays just a few more. Large unknown datasets across languages? Use someone else's library and save yourself time.