Convert Basic INI Key-Value Pairs to JSON

From Key-Value Pairs to JSON

The simplest INI file contains key-value pairs at the top level, without any section headers. When converted to JSON, these become properties of a root object.

Example INI

name=MyApplication
version=2.5
debug=true
port=8080
host=localhost

Generated JSON

{
  "name": "MyApplication",
  "version": 2.5,
  "debug": true,
  "port": 8080,
  "host": "localhost"
}

Type Coercion Rules

The converter automatically detects and converts value types:

INI value	JSON type	Example
Unquoted text	String	host=localhost → "localhost"
Integer	Number	port=8080 → 8080
Decimal	Number	version=2.5 → 2.5
true/false/yes/no/on/off	Boolean	debug=true → true
Quoted string	String (preserved)	name="123" → "123"

Important Notes

• Keys are preserved exactly as written --- no case conversion is applied
• Values with leading or trailing spaces are trimmed unless quoted
• Empty values (key=) result in an empty string
• Valueless keys (key without =) can be treated as true or empty string depending on options