Purpose of `render` in json4s
I guess you were looking at one of the concrete implementations of the render method, which definition you can see in the JsonMethods trait:
def render(value: JValue)(implicit formats: Formats = DefaultFormats): Tdef compact(d: T): Stringdef pretty(d: T): StringThe method render returns a generic type T, which is the entry type for the compact and pretty methods.
There are two implementations of the method render in the json4s project, as per the native and jackson flavours... I've checked the code superficially only but they both seem to be filtering the empty elements of the json object according to different strategies. Let's say getting it ready for the pretty and / or compact methods to kick in?