decoder.patch

diff --git a/decoder.lua b/decoder.lua
index 4478894..2e40aed 100644
--- a/decoder.lua
+++ b/decoder.lua
@@ -403,10 +403,12 @@ local function newdecoder()
 		if rec_depth > 1000 then
 			decode_error('too deeply nested json (> 1000)')
 		end
-		local obj = {}
+		local obj = {[0]=false} -- distinguish empty arrays from objects
 
 		f, pos = find(json, '^[ \n\r\t]*', pos)
 		pos = pos+1
+
+		local i = 0
 		if byte(json, pos) ~= 0x7D then  -- check closing bracket '}' which means the object empty
 			local newpos = pos-1
 
@@ -441,7 +443,8 @@ local function newdecoder()
 					f = dispatcher[byte(json, newpos+1)]
 				end
 				pos = newpos+2
-				obj[key] = f()  -- parse value
+				i = i+2
+				obj[i-1], obj[i] = key, f() -- parse value
 				f, newpos = find(json, '^[ \n\r\t]*,[ \n\r\t]*', pos)
 			until not newpos
 
@@ -452,6 +455,12 @@ local function newdecoder()
 			pos = newpos
 		end
 
+		-- Second pass for kv mapping is empirically faster than doing it
+		-- alongside the pair assignments in the inner loop
+		for j=1,i,2 do
+			obj[obj[j]] = obj[j+1]
+		end
+
 		pos = pos+1
 		rec_depth = rec_depth - 1
 		return obj