BSON_AS_JSON_WITH_OPTS(3)

💅 BSON_AS_JSON_WITH_OPTS 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the bson_as_json_with_opts page, straight out of the libbson manual (section 3, iykyk). this one's a little baddie of a function and honestly? she ate. let's get into it ✨

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

char *
bson_as_json_with_opts (const bson_t *bson, size_t *length, const bson_json_opts_t *opts);

like, that's her. that's the whole signature. gorgeous, no notes 💅

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🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

• bson — a bson_t. the actual BSON thing you're turning into a string, bestie 🫶
• length — an optional spot to stash the length of the resulting string. optional!! so you can pass NULL and she won't be mad at you 💖
• opts — a bson_json_opts_t. this is where you tell her how you want the encoding done 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bson_as_json_with_opts() encodes bson as a UTF-8 string, either in the MongoDB Extended JSON format or in libbson's Legacy Extended JSON. literally her whole personality 🌈

so listen — the caller is responsible for freeing that resulting UTF-8 encoded string. that means you, bestie 😭 call bson_free() on the result when you're done with it. don't just leave her hanging, that's so not main character energy 🙈

if length is non-NULL, length gets set to the length of the result in bytes. bytes, not vibes. important distinction 💀

and the opts structure? that's the little vehicle for passing options into the encoding process 🚗💨 please refer to the documentation of bson_json_opts_t for more details — she's got lore, go read it 📖✨

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🍓 RETURNS 🍓

• if it's successful → a newly allocated UTF-8 encoded string comes back to you, and length is set. slay 💚
• upon failure → NULL. and honestly? rude, but okay 😭

fr fr, remember that failure case exists. always vibe-check your return value before you start printing it everywhere 🫶

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👑 EXAMPLE 👑

okay this is my favorite part, watch her work:

bson_t *b = BCON_NEW("foo", BCON_INT32(123));
bson_json_opts_t *opts = bson_json_opts_new(BSON_JSON_MODE_CANONICAL, BSON_MAX_LEN_UNLIMITED);
char *str = bson_as_json_with_opts(b, NULL, opts);
printf("Canonical Extended JSON: %s\n", str);
// Prints:
// Canonical Extended JSON: { "foo" : { "$numberInt" : "123" } }
bson_free(str);
bson_json_opts_destroy(opts);
bson_destroy(b);

see how she cleans up after herself? bson_free(str), bson_json_opts_destroy(opts), bson_destroy(b). three little cleanup lines, maximum responsibility, zero leaks. that's the energy we're bringing into 2026 ✨🧚

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

MongoDB, Inc — yeah, them. the icons behind all this 💜

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⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

2009-present, MongoDB, Inc.

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and that's the page!! 🦋 this was BSON_AS_JSON_WITH_OPTS(3) from libbson, version 2.5.6, dated Oct 09, 2026 — go forth and encode responsibly, bestie, mwah 💅💖🎀