having difficulty to parse a test JSON file with this

[creativegamer03]

So I was trying to use this parser to recode my Python program to C++ since it had a slower execution time than C++. However, I still can't get it to build and test my code due to errors, all about does not name a type errors in most lines from my simple test program.
Here's my code:

#include "json/json.h"
#include <fstream>

std::ifstream sample_file("sample.json", std::ifstream::binary);
sample_file >> sample;

// cout << people; //This will print the entire json object.

// The following lines will let you access the indexed objects.
cout << "Bible version: ";
cout << sample["version"]; // bible version
cout << "Sample verse content";
cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["verses"][1]["verse"]; //sample bible verse selection from JSON file
cout << "Sample footnote content";
cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["footnotes"][1]["reference"];
cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["footnotes"][1]["footnotes"]; //sample bible footnote selection from JSON file

And here's the console build messages/log:

Line	Message
5	error: 'sample_file' does not name a type
10	error: 'cout' does not name a type
11	error: 'cout' does not name a type
12	error: 'cout' does not name a type
13	error: 'cout' does not name a type
14	error: 'cout' does not name a type
15	error: 'cout' does not name a type
16	error: 'cout' does not name a type

Btw, the code was based from the answer here from stack overflow:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32205981/reading-json-files-in-c

And I'm building this from the GNU GCC compiler in Code::Blocks.
Can someone clarify me why this does not work and what's the proper way to do it?

[BillyDonahue]

It looks like you skipped over some C++ fundamentals. This forum is not a place to learn C++. I think you need to back up a few steps and get some experience with very basic C++ program structure and then come back to this problem.

All of those cout statements need to be std::cout, and you need to #include <iostream> to see the declaration for std::cout.
The bigger problem is that all those statement need to be inside a function. Statements can't appear at file scope like that in C++ like they can in Python, so C++ thinks you're declaring a variable or function, which is why it's complaining that cout doesn't name a type. You need to put all those statements into a main function and declare the sample variable as a Json::Value sample; before putting an istream to it.

[creativegamer03]

by the time I posted this, I did some modifications on the code since I thought it needs the main() function, so I did, including adding some other stuff. By the time I checked your answer, I added the Json::Value sample; line.

The code so far:

#include "json/json.h"
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    Json::Value sample;

    std::ifstream sample_file("sample.json", std::ifstream::binary);
    sample_file >> sample;
    // cout << people; //This will print the entire json object.

    // The following lines will let you access the indexed objects.
    std::cout << "Bible version: ";
    std::cout << sample["version"]; // bible version
    std::cout << "Sample verse content";
    std::cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["verses"][1]["verse"]; //sample bible verse selection from JSON file
    std::cout << "Sample footnote content";
    std::cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["footnotes"][1]["reference"];
    std::cout << sample["testaments"][0]["books"][2]["chapters"][1]["footnotes"][1]["footnotes"]; //sample bible footnote selection from JSON file

    return 0;
}

Building almost succeeded until it errored on the *.o file it generated after it build an *.exe file but was then removed due to several errors about undefined reference to 'Json::Value::<several things under this>. Is it because of the amalgamated version of the jsoncpp package, or is it an error in my code (again)? I used the Amalgamated method to add jsoncpp to my project because the vcpkg method didn't worked for me due to needing a x64 7zip installation, of which my current device doesn't support because it's x86.

[BillyDonahue]

You'll have to BUILD the jsoncpp library into a .a file and then link it into your executable. Using libraries in C++ is not so easy. Even with the amalgamated packaging variant of the jsoncpp library, you need to link the jsoncpp library into your executable. The way you do this varies between development environments.

For Code::Blocks, it looks like you need to start here:
https://www.codeblocks.org/docs/main_codeblocks_en3.html#x3-350001.11.13

[creativegamer03]

Ok I just successfully built the library into an .a file, and the test json program was finally built. However, it did return a status code 3.
Console output:

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Json::RuntimeError'
  what():  * Line 1, Column 1
  Syntax error: value, object or array expected.


Process returned 3 (0x3)   execution time : 9.378 s
Press any key to continue.

Is this related to the JSON file, the program's code, or jsoncpp? The json file is good (did a validation check online).