JSON - Validating a Json array or Object

Question

Here's 2 javascript variables:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var example1 = 'Mr.:1|Mrs.:2|Ms.:3|Dr.:4|Sr.:5|Jr.:6';
var example2 = {'Mr.':'1','Mrs.':'2','Ms.':'3','Dr.':'4','Sr.':'5','Jr.':'6'}
</script>

With javascript, is there a way to detect which one is not json?

Answer 1

You can use the JSON.parse function: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc836466%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

This will throw an exception if the text passed into it is not valid JSON.

Edit:

The comments noting that you have not pasted JSON code are correct. This code:

var json = {"var1":"val1"};

Is actually a JavaScript Object. It looks remarkably similar, and it's quite easy to go between the two (using JSON.stringify and JSON.parse) but they are different concepts.

Answer 2

Use try catch and handle accordingly:

function IsJsonString(str) {
  try {
      JSON.parse(str);
  } catch (e) {
      return false;
  }
  return true;
}

Answer 3

if you want to get the type of the variable in js,

You can try this

typeof("somevalue")
//returns string

typeof array or object will return you 'object' like

var arr = [];
typeof(arr) // returns 'object'

Answer 4

like this

try {
    JSON.parse(example1);
} catch (e) {
    console.log(example1+' is not valid JSON');
}