Pointers

A JSON pointer is a way of traversing a JSON document by specifying the path to the desired value. Opis JSON Schema supports both absolute and relative JSON schema pointers.

Absolute pointers

Absolute JSON pointers are used to search for values starting at the root of the document. That’s why absolute JSON pointers always start with / (slash). The property names (keys) used to descend into children are also separated by / (slash).

If a property name contains ~, then inside the pointer it must be escaped using ~0, or if contains / then it must be escaped using ~1.

Here are some examples about how absolute JSON pointers work:

{
  "name": "some product",
  "price": 10.5,
  "features": [
    "easy to use",
    {
      "name": "environment friendly",
      "url": "http://example.com"
    }
  ],
  "info": {
    "onStock": true
  },
  "a/b": "a"
}

You can find more details about the structure of absolute JSON pointers here.

Using absolute pointers

You can use absolute JSON pointers to fetch data/subschemas defined in the document. You must specify the pointer in the fragment component of the URI, this means that you should place your pointer after #.

Consider the following JSON schema document

{
  "$id": "http://example.com/schema.json#",
  
  "$defs": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1
    },
    "personal": {
      "email": {
        "type": "string",
        "format": "email"
      },
      "birthday": {
        "type": "string",
        "format": "date"
      }
    }
  }
}

Here is a table containing the absolute URI and pointer to fetch the desired schemas.

Now lets see a complex example that uses the $ref keyword.

{
  "$id": "http://example.com/path/to/user.json",
  
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "email": {
      "$ref": "#/$defs/personal/email"
    },
    "birthday": {
      "$ref": "#/$defs/personal/birthday"
    },
    "settings": {
      "$ref": "user-settings.json#/$defs/settings"
    },
    "info": {
      "$ref": "../info.json#"
    },
    "root": {
      "$ref": "/other/path/to/schema.json#/$defs/root"
    },
    "external": {
      "$ref": "http://external.example.com/some-schema.json#/$defs/name"
    }
  },
  
  "$defs": {
    "personal": {
      "email": {
        "type": "string",
        "format": "email"
      },
      "birthday": {
        "type": "string",
        "format": "date"
      }
    }
  }
}

First thing we have to notice is that this document contains the $id keyword. This means that all values of the $ref keyword will be resolved using the $id as base.

The following table contains the resolved (absolute) URIs for $refs inside the properties keyword.

These are the steps in order to perform validation for email property

1. Get the value of $ref => #/$defs/personal/email
2. Get the absolute URI, using $id as base => http://example.com/path/to/user.json#/$defs/personal/email
3. Load the schema document having the $id equal to http://example.com/path/to/user.json (in this case it is the same document)
4. Apply the json pointer /$defs/personal/email to get the subschema => {"type": "string", "format": "email"}
5. Use the subschema for validation (in our case we validate the value of email property)

Relative pointers

Relative JSON pointers are used to search for values starting at the current location. We can go upwards by specifying the numbers of levels to ascend, we can optionally change index position, and then we can go downwards by using a pointer composed by multiple property names (keys) separated by / (slash). The level and the pointer are also separated by / (slash). Additionally, we can append # which will return the property name (key) where our value was found (this is very useful for arrays). The level is always required and must be a non-negative integer. Level 0 points to the current location, level 1 points to the parent of current location, and so on. You cannot use a level that will go past document root.

If a property name contains ~, then inside the pointer it must be escaped using ~0, or if contains / then it must be escaped using ~1.

Here are some examples about how relative JSON pointers work:

{
  "name": "some product",
  "price": 10.5,
  "features": [
    "easy to use",
    {
      "name": "environment friendly",
      "url": "http://example.com"
    }
  ],
  "info": {
    "onStock": true
  },
  "a/b": "a"
}

Considering that our current location is 10.5 (absolute JSON pointer /price) we have the following table

Considering that our current location is "http://example.com" (absolute JSON pointer /features/1/url) we have the following table

You can find more details about the structure of relative JSON pointers here.

Using relative pointers

You can use absolute JSON pointers to fetch data/subschemas defined in the document. You cannot use relative pointers in the way you use absolute pointers, so you cannot use them in an URI.

Here is an example using the $ref keyword.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "first_email": {
      "type": "string",
      "format": "email"
    },
    "second_email": {
      "$ref": "1/first_email"
    }
  }
}

These are the steps taken in order to perform validation of second_email property:

1. The current location is {"$ref": "1/first_email"} (the value of second_email property)
2. Ascending 1 level we end up at the value of properties property
3. Descending into first_email and we get {"type": "string", "format": "email"}
4. Use the subschema to validate the value of second_email property