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# Overview
Though JSON is a ubiquitous data format, it is not a very compact format suitable for data exchange, for instance over a network. Hence, the library supports
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- [BSON ](bson.md ) (Binary JSON),
- [CBOR ](cbor.md ) (Concise Binary Object Representation),
- [MessagePack ](messagepack.md ), and
- [UBJSON ](ubjson.md ) (Universal Binary JSON Specification)
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to efficiently encode JSON values to byte vectors and to decode such vectors.
## Comparison
### Completeness
| Format | Serialization | Deserialization |
| ----------- |---------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| BSON | incomplete: top-level value must be an object | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported |
| CBOR | complete | incomplete, but all JSON types are supported |
| MessagePack | complete | complete |
| UBJSON | complete | complete |
### Binary values
| Format | Binary values | Binary subtypes |
| ----------- | ------------- | --------------- |
| BSON | supported | supported |
| CBOR | supported | not supported |
| MessagePack | supported | supported |
| UBJSON | not supported | not supported |
### Sizes
| Format | canada.json | twitter.json | citm_catalog.json | jeopardy.json |
| ------------------ | ----------- | ------------ | ----------------- | ------------- |
| BSON | 85,8
| CBOR | 50,5
| MessagePack | 50,6
| UBJSON | 53,2
| UBJSON (size) | 58,6
| UBJSON (size+type) | 55,9
