Are JSON values valid JSON?

Question

Are JSON values string, number, true, false, null valid JSON? I.e., is

true

a valid JSON document? Or does is have to be an array/object?

Some validators accept this (e.g. http://jsonlint.com/), while others do not (e.g. http://jsonschemalint.com/). The RFC and json.org are not clear on this issue.

Answer 1

As of March 2014: Yes. From the specification:

A JSON text is a serialized value. Note that certain previous specifications of JSON constrained a JSON text to be an object or an array. Implementations that generate only objects or arrays where a JSON text is called for will be interoperable in the sense that all implementations will accept these as conforming JSON texts.

However, at the time this question was originally asked, the answer was: No. The original specification said:

A JSON text is a serialized object or array

So the outer-most data type in a JSON text had to be either an object or an array, it couldn't be a string, boolean, number or any other data type.