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# basic_json::dump

    string_t dump(const int indent = -1,
                  const char indent_char = ' ',
                  const bool ensure_ascii = false,
                  const error_handler_t error_handler = error_handler_t::strict) const

Serialization function for JSON values. The function tries to mimic Python's `json.dumps()` function, and currently supports its `indent` and `ensure_ascii` parameters.

## Parameters

`indent` (in)
  If `indent` is nonnegative, then array elements and object members will be pretty-printed with that indent level. An indent level of `0` will only insert newlines. `-1` (the default) selects the most compact representation.
`indent_char` (in)
  The character to use for indentation if `indent` is greater than `0`. The default is `` (space).
`ensure_ascii` (in)
  If `ensure_ascii` is true, all non-ASCII characters in the output are escaped with `\uXXXX` sequences, and the result consists of ASCII characters only.
`error_handler` (in)
  how to react on decoding errors; there are three possible values: `strict` (throws and exception in case a decoding error occurs; default), `replace` (replace invalid UTF-8 sequences with U+FFFD), and `ignore` (ignore invalid UTF-8 sequences during serialization; all bytes are copied to the output unchanged).

## Return value

string containing the serialization of the JSON value

## Exception safety

Strong guarantee: if an exception is thrown, there are no changes to any JSON value.

## Complexity

Linear.

## Notes

Binary values are serialized as object containing two keys:

- "bytes": an array of bytes as integers
- "subtype": the subtype as integer or `null` if the binary has no subtype

## Example

The following example shows the effect of different `indent`, `indent_char`, and `ensure_ascii` parameters to the result of the serialization.

    #include <iostream>
    #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>

    using json = nlohmann::json;

    int main()
    {
        // create JSON values
        json j_object = {{"one", 1}, {"two", 2}};
        json j_array = {1, 2, 4, 8, 16};
        json j_string = "Hellö 😀!";

        // call dump()
        std::cout << "objects:" << '\n'
                  << j_object.dump() << "\n\n"
                  << j_object.dump(-1) << "\n\n"
                  << j_object.dump(0) << "\n\n"
                  << j_object.dump(4) << "\n\n"
                  << j_object.dump(1, '\t') << "\n\n";

        std::cout << "arrays:" << '\n'
                  << j_array.dump() << "\n\n"
                  << j_array.dump(-1) << "\n\n"
                  << j_array.dump(0) << "\n\n"
                  << j_array.dump(4) << "\n\n"
                  << j_array.dump(1, '\t') << "\n\n";

        std::cout << "strings:" << '\n'
                  << j_string.dump() << '\n'
                  << j_string.dump(-1, ' ', true) << '\n';

        // create JSON value with invalid UTF-8 byte sequence
        json j_invalid = "ä\xA9ü";
        try
        {
            std::cout << j_invalid.dump() << std::endl;
        }
        catch (json::type_error& e)
        {
            std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
        }

        std::cout << "string with replaced invalid characters: "
                  << j_invalid.dump(-1, ' ', false, json::error_handler_t::replace)
                  << "\nstring with ignored invalid characters: "
                  << j_invalid.dump(-1, ' ', false, json::error_handler_t::ignore)
                  << '\n';
    }

Output:

    objects:
    {"one":1,"two":2}

    {"one":1,"two":2}

    {
    "one": 1,
    "two": 2
    }

    {
        "one": 1,
        "two": 2
    }

    {
        "one": 1,
        "two": 2
    }

    arrays:
    [1,2,4,8,16]

    [1,2,4,8,16]

    [
    1,
    2,
    4,
    8,
    16
    ]

    [
        1,
        2,
        4,
        8,
        16
    ]

    [
        1,
        2,
        4,
        8,
        16
    ]

    strings:
    "Hellö 😀!"
    "Hell\u00f6 \ud83d\ude00!"
    [json.exception.type_error.316] invalid UTF-8 byte at index 2: 0xA9
    string with replaced invalid characters: "ä�ü"
    string with ignored invalid characters: "äü"