Convert JSON to a list of maps in Javascript

Question

I have to wrap some JSON in a response entity in order to pass it. The JSON looks like this:

{"headers":{"Content-Type":["application/json; charset=utf-8"]},"body":"\"[{\\\"name\\\":\\\"BFF\\\",\\\"id\\\":\\\"10713436\\\"}...

If I call $.parseJSON(thatthing.body), I get:

[{"name":"BFF","id":"10713436"},...

which looks good -- like a list of maps, which is what I expect. But If I call $.parseJSON(thatthing.body)[0], I just get the character '[' -- the literal first character of that text.

How do I instead treat this object like the list of maps that it is?

@elclanrs Gladly. Can you show me how I can do that, noting that I barely understand the basics of html and javascript? — Jeremy
– Jeremy, Commented Mar 8, 2014 at 1:03
thatthing.body is a string that contains a string containing JSON. You have to parse twice. Better: Fix the code that generates this mess. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Mar 8, 2014 at 1:15
"\"[{\\\": It's a string (first "), which contains another string (\") which contains JSON ([{\\\"). Also, since you said that $.parseJSON(thatthing.body)[0] returns [, it means that $.parseJSON(thatthing.body) returns a string. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Mar 8, 2014 at 1:34

Mark F · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-08 01:10:53Z

2

Whats happening is $.parseJSON is giving you a string, just parse it back into an object.

var Jstring = $.parseJSON(thatthing.body);
var Jobject = JSON.parse(Jstring); //<-- parse the sting back into json

answered Mar 8, 2014 at 1:10

Mark F

1767 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Felix Kling Over a year ago

To be clear: $.parseJSON parses JSON and returns whatever the JSON decodes to. In this case it's a string. There is also no reason to use $.parseJSON and JSON.parse. Just use one of them.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Convert JSON to a list of maps in Javascript

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Related