From df0b0cce42ab76cc06c7d22e5b5937a47a6b2bee Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Josh Baker <joshbaker77@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2018 09:49:01 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] section on json validation

---
 README.md | 15 ++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6af67e5..70240d9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ $ go get -u github.com/tidwall/gjson
 This will retrieve the library.
 
 ## Get a value
-Get searches json for the specified path. A path is in dot syntax, such as "name.last" or "age". This function expects that the json is well-formed. Bad json will not panic, but it may return back unexpected results. When the value is found it's returned immediately. 
+Get searches json for the specified path. A path is in dot syntax, such as "name.last" or "age". When the value is found it's returned immediately. 
 
 ```go
 package main
@@ -275,6 +275,19 @@ if gjson.Get(json, "name.last").Exists() {
 }
 ```
 
+## Validate JSON
+
+The `Get*` and `Parse*` functions expects that the json is well-formed. Bad json will not panic, but it may return back unexpected results.
+
+If you are consuming JSON from an unpredictable source then you may want to validate prior to using GJSON.
+
+```go
+if !gjson.Valid(json) {
+	return errors.New("invalid json")
+}
+value := gjson.Get(json, "name.last")
+```
+
 ## Unmarshal to a map
 
 To unmarshal to a `map[string]interface{}`: