JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It looks a lot like a JavaScript object, but it has stricter formation rules. It's probably the easiest format to work with. It's compact and easy to parse, and it's gradually replacing XML as a preferred data format in Web services.

The following data file containing continent data is shown in JSON format (Data/sample.json):

[
     {
         "continent": "North America",
         "population": 579024000,
         "areakm2": 24490000
     },{
         "continent": "Asia",
         "population": 4436224000,
         "areakm2": 43820000
     },{
         "continent": "Europe",
         "population": 738849000,
         "areakm2": 10180000
     },{
         "continent": "Africa",
         "population": 1216130000,
         "areakm2": 30370000
     },{
         "continent": "South America",
         "population": 422535000,
         "areakm2": 17840000
     },{
         "continent": "Oceania",
         "population": 39901000,
         "areakm2": 9008500
     },{
         "continent": "Antarctica",
         "population": 1106,
         "areakm2": 13720000
     }
 ]

JSON is the preferred format for data manipulation in JavaScript. There are many online tools you can use to transform CSV and XML files into JSON.