Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values

somekindafreak has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am working with JSON data on a block of product versions. Therefore I want 5.0 to remain as a '5.0' string without being converted to an integer and without adding any token trailing characters. When I run:

    my $json=JSON->new->allow_nonref;
    my $var='5.0';
    print $json->encode( { $var => $var } );
[download]

the output is {"5.0" : 5}. I need {"5.0" : "5.0" } I've spent a ton of time searching the documentation and experimenting without finding a solution. There is a blurb on stringifying a value by wrapping it in quotes or adding a trailing ."" but neither do the trick. It also strips leading zeros while maintaining the float value, 5.10 becomes 5.1

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Re: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Jul 20, 2012 at 21:06 UTC
Upgrade? And ensure you've got JSON::XS. I've got 2.22. `perl -MJSON -le '$var = "5.0"; print JSON->new->allow_nonref->encode({ +$var => $var})' {"5.0":"5.0"}` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by somekindafreak (Acolyte) on Jul 20, 2012 at 22:14 UTC
I have JSON::XS version 2.29. Perhaps I should downgrade? Actually I am developing for a static perl environment that I can't touch either way.	[reply]
Re^3: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by tobyink (Canon) on Jul 20, 2012 at 22:57 UTC
I'm on 2.32 and get `{ "5.0": "5.0" }`. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by somekindafreak (Acolyte) on Jul 20, 2012 at 23:16 UTC
Re: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by aitap (Curate) on Jul 20, 2012 at 19:01 UTC
Does `{ $var => sprintf("%.01f",$var) }` solve all possible cases? Sorry if my advice was wrong.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by Anonymous Monk on Jul 20, 2012 at 19:46 UTC
As far as I know the JSON format is basically "JavaScript" and as such it does not reliably know whether a string that could be a number, or a number that could be a string, are one fundamental type or another.	[reply]
Re^2: Can I prevent JSON encode from converting values by tobyink (Canon) on Jul 20, 2012 at 22:55 UTC
JSON (and Javascript for that matter) distinguishes between integers and strings; it's Perl that does not. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply]