Handling Quoted Values in INI to JSON Conversion

Quoted Values in INI Files

INI files support both single-quoted and double-quoted values. Quoting is important when a value contains characters that would otherwise be interpreted as part of the INI syntax, such as semicolons (inline comments), equals signs, or leading/trailing whitespace.

Example INI

[paths]
data_dir="/var/lib/myapp/data"
log_file='/var/log/myapp.log'
temp_dir = /tmp/myapp

[special]
; Value with semicolon needs quoting
connection_string="host=db;port=5432;user=admin"
greeting='Hello, World!'
numeric_string="12345"
bool_string="true"

[whitespace]
padded_value="  spaces preserved  "
trimmed_value=  spaces trimmed

Generated JSON

{
  "paths": {
    "data_dir": "/var/lib/myapp/data",
    "log_file": "/var/log/myapp.log",
    "temp_dir": "/tmp/myapp"
  },
  "special": {
    "connection_string": "host=db;port=5432;user=admin",
    "greeting": "Hello, World!",
    "numeric_string": "12345",
    "bool_string": "true"
  },
  "whitespace": {
    "padded_value": "  spaces preserved  ",
    "trimmed_value": "spaces trimmed"
  }
}

Key Behaviors

1. Quotes are stripped: The surrounding quotes are removed in the JSON output --- only the content between them is kept
2. Type coercion is prevented: "12345" remains the string "12345" instead of being coerced to the number 12345. Similarly, "true" stays as the string "true"
3. Special characters preserved: Semicolons inside quotes are not treated as inline comments
4. Whitespace handling: Inside quotes, whitespace is preserved exactly. Outside quotes, leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed
5. Mixed quoting: Both single and double quotes work the same way. You cannot nest one type inside another

When to Use Quotes

• Values containing ; or # (to prevent inline comment parsing)
• Values with leading or trailing whitespace you want to preserve
• Numeric or boolean strings that should remain as strings in JSON
• Values containing = characters