Difference between res.send and res.json in Express.js
Javascriptnode.jsHttpExpressJavascript Problem Overview
What is actual difference between res.send
and res.json
as both seems to perform same operation of responding to client.
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
The methods are identical when an object or array is passed, but res.json()
will also convert non-objects, such as null
and undefined
, which are not valid JSON.
The method also uses the json replacer
and json spaces
application settings, so you can format JSON with more options. Those options are set like so:
app.set('json spaces', 2);
app.set('json replacer', replacer);
And passed to a JSON.stringify()
like so:
JSON.stringify(value, replacer, spacing);
// value: object to format
// replacer: rules for transforming properties encountered during stringifying
// spacing: the number of spaces for indentation
This is the code in the res.json()
method that the res.send()
method doesn't have:
var app = this.app;
var replacer = app.get('json replacer');
var spaces = app.get('json spaces');
var body = JSON.stringify(obj, replacer, spaces);
The method ends up as a res.send()
in the end:
this.charset = this.charset || 'utf-8';
this.get('Content-Type') || this.set('Content-Type', 'application/json');
return this.send(body);
Solution 2 - Javascript
See: res.json
source code on expressjs.
res.json
eventually calls res.send
, but before that it:
-
respects the
json spaces
andjson replacer
app settings -
ensures the response will have
utf-8
charset andapplication/json
Content-Type
Solution 3 - Javascript
Looking in the headers sent...
res.send
uses content-type:text/html
res.json
uses content-type:application/json
edit: send actually changes what is sent based on what it's given, so strings are sent as text/html
, but if you pass it an object it emits application/json
.
Solution 4 - Javascript
res.json
forces the argument to JSON. res.send
will take an non-json object or non-json array and send another type. For example:
This will return a JSON number.
res.json(100)
This will return a status code and issue a warning to use sendStatus
.
res.send(100)
If your argument is not a JSON object or array (null
, undefined
, boolean
, string
), and you want to ensure it is sent as JSON, use res.json
.