How to represent combination data in JSON?-CodePudding

I am implementing an API that returns how many users are using a particular app.

For example, say I want to return data that says

10 people are using only App1, 8 are using only App2, 8 are using only App3, and 15 are using both App1 and App2, and 20 are using all App1, App2, and App3.

How do we design the response structure in JSON?

I thought returning it in comma separated format

{
  "App1": 10,
  "App2": 8,
  "App3": 8,
  "App1,App2": 15,
  "App1,App2,App3": 20
}

Is this format is right and semantically correct?

I thought of Array as well,

[
   {"key": ["App1"], "count": 10},
   {"key": ["App2"], "count": 8},
   {"key": ["App3"], "count": 8},
   {"key": ["App1", "App2"], "count": 15},
   {"key": ["App1", "App2", "App3"], "count": 20}
]

but was doubtful on this on whether it is semantically correct.

Is there any better way? What is the best way to represent this data?

CodePudding user response：

I think the solution you have tried is very limited. Your solution is fine for 3 apps but let's say that you later want to add few more apps then you have add those return types as well.

Instead of the above I would like to suggest as below. This suggestion has low coupling and can work for any number of apps

{
  "IndividualAppUsersCount":[10,8,8],
  "MultipleAppUsersCount":[ 
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App1 App2",
      "Count":15
    },
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App1 App2 App3",
      "Count":20
    }
  ]
}

The benefit of using this approach is that you are not limited to predefined apps but can easily work for 0 to n number of apps. Just loop through the array and get the corresponding result.

You can even improve the above result by following as below.

{

  "AppUsersCount":[
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App1",
      "Count":10
    },
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App2",
      "Count":8
    },
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App3",
      "Count":8
    },
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App1, App2",
      "Count":15
    },
    {
      "AppsInUse":"App1, App2, App3",
      "Count":20
    }
  ]
}

I hope this answers your question. However if you still have any other question, let me know I will be glad to answer.

Thank you for reading.

CodePudding user response：

I would go with the following structure:

{
  "usersCount": [
    {
      "apps": ["App1"],
      "userCount": 10
    },
    {
      "apps": ["App2"],
      "userCount": 8
    },
    {
      "apps": ["App3"],
      "userCount": 8
    },
    {
      "apps": ["App1", "App2"],
      "userCount": 15
    },
    {
      "apps": ["App1", "App2", "App3"],
      "userCount": 20
    }
  ]
}

This would make it easier to parse and handle multiple Apps (when compared with String split for example). To make it a little bit more strongly typed I would make App1, App2 and App3 values of an App enumeration.