What is JEAN?

JEAN (Just Enough Array Notations) is a text configuration format designed for minimalistic data storage and data transfer.
Unlike other text configuration formats like JSON, the entirety of a .jean file is treated as an implicit array container.

Example of JEAN:

entities.jean:

% entity_name (string), x (float), y (float), z (float), health (int), is_active (bool)
"Orc" 56.0 25.0 25.0 100 t
"Goblin" 25.0 25.0 -75.0 25 f
"Goblin" 16.5 25.0 -60.0 25 f
"Goblin" 12.5 25.0 -80.0 25 f
"Treasure Chest" -125.75 30.0 -80.0 -1 t % -1 in health means it's infinite

Why should I care?

Most formats like JSON, TOML, and YAML are useful for general-purpose applications. These formats can be unnecessarily verbose for small, hand-edited data files, especially in resource-constrained applications where simplicity and compactness matter.
JEAN solves these problems by:

• Using whitespace (" ", "\t", "\n") instead of structural punctuation can reduce the size and visual noise of simple data files
• Having as few types as possible (eg. "string" 1 -0.5 t/f [booleans])
• Treating the entire file as an implicit array, simplifying the parser

Features:

• The entire file is treated as an implicit array
• Whitespace-based syntax
• Minimal data types
• Single-line comments (All of them begin with %)
• Simple parsing model
• A deliberately lightweight file format

Use cases:

• Game-development data
• Embedded and resource-constrained systems
• Simple application configuration
• Custom tools and internal pipelines
• Inter-process communication

Benchmark (Using Lua Parser)

Disclaimer:

The figures shown are illustrative estimates for parsing 100 records. Actual usage depends on the parser implementation, runtime, allocator, OS, and output data structure. These figures are provided as a showcase and should not be treated as definitive benchmarks.

Template file:

id	first_name	last_name	email	age	role	is_active
int	string	string	string	int	string	bool

100 Records (Raw):

Format	Size	Speed	Memory
JSON	~16.7 KB	~0.15 ms	~250 KB
TOML	~13.4 KB	~0.25 ms	~300 KB
YAML	~13.6 KB	~0.55 ms	~500 KB
CSV	~5.9 KB	~0.10 ms	~100 KB
JEAN	~6.0 KB	~0.08 ms	~120 KB

100 Records (Minified):

Format	Size	Speed	Memory
JSON	~12.5 KB	~0.14 ms	~175 KB
TOML	~11.9 KB	~0.23 ms	~156 KB
YAML	~11.8 KB	~0.50 ms	~310 KB
CSV	Same	Same	~60 KB
JEAN	~5.5 KB	~0.08 ms	~90 KB

100 Records (Compressed via GZIP):

Format	Size	Speed	Memory
JSON	~2.7 KB	~0.17 ms	~100 KB
TOML	~2.6 KB	~0.27 ms	~120 KB
YAML	~2.7 KB	~0.56 ms	~180 KB
CSV	~1.4 KB	~0.12 ms	~40 KB
JEAN	~2.2 KB	~0.10 ms	~50 KB

Disadvantages / Limitations:

• Since the records rely on a fixed field, rather than named keys, it is extremely delicate; removing one element may result in field shifting
• Because it is designed to save as much space as possible, it may be unreadable to some people without the use of comments
• It is not designed for general-purpose tasks in mind, use it where its simplicity and compactness are beneficial