#!/usr/bin/env perl use Data::Dumper qw(Dumper); my $FROM_JSON = qr{ (?&VALUE) (?{ $_ = $^R->[1] }) (?(DEFINE) (? (?{ [$^R, {}] }) \{ (?: (?&KV) # [[$^R, {}], $k, $v] (?{ # warn Dumper { obj1 => $^R }; [$^R->[0][0], {$^R->[1] => $^R->[2]}] }) (?: , (?&KV) # [[$^R, {...}], $k, $v] (?{ # warn Dumper { obj2 => $^R }; [$^R->[0][0], {%{$^R->[0][1]}, $^R->[1] => $^R->[2]}] }) )* )? \} ) (? (?&STRING) # [$^R, "string"] : (?&VALUE) # [[$^R, "string"], $value] (?{ # warn Dumper { kv => $^R }; [$^R->[0][0], $^R->[0][1], $^R->[1]] }) ) (? (?{ [$^R, []] }) \[ (?: (?&VALUE) (?{ [$^R->[0][0], [$^R->[1]]] }) (?: , (?&VALUE) (?{ # warn Dumper { atwo => $^R }; [$^R->[0][0], [@{$^R->[0][1]}, $^R->[1]]] }) )* )? \] ) (? \s* ( (?&STRING) | (?&NUMBER) | (?&OBJECT) | (?&ARRAY) | true (?{ [$^R, 1] }) | false (?{ [$^R, 0] }) | null (?{ [$^R, undef] }) ) \s* ) (? ( " (?: [^\\"]+ | \\ ["\\/bfnrt] # | # \\ u [0-9a-fA-f]{4} )* " ) (?{ [$^R, eval $^N] }) ) (? ( -? (?: 0 | [1-9]\d* ) (?: \. \d+ )? (?: [eE] [-+]? \d+ )? ) (?{ [$^R, eval $^N] }) ) ) }xms; sub from_json { local $_ = shift; local $^R; eval { m{\A$FROM_JSON\z}; } and return $_; die $@ if $@; return 'no match'; } while (<>) { chomp; print Dumper from_json($_); }