Node Express & JSON Response Format

Question

I am wondering why I am getting my JSON response with escaped double quotes. What is the best practice for sending JSON response back to client?

The code

var express = require('express');
var server = express();
var country = '';
var dataStr = '[{"country_code" : "USA", "country_name" : "United States","bac_limit" : 0.80}, { "country_code" : "CAN", "country_name" : "United States","bac_limit":0.80}]';
connectToMongoDb();

server.get('/', function(req, res){
   country = req.query.country;
   res.json(dataStr);
});
server.listen(8080);

The Output

"[{\"country_code\" : \"USA\", \"country_name\" : \"United States\",\"bac_limit\" : 0.80}, { \"country_code\" : \"CAN\", \"country_name\" : \"United States\",\"bac_limit\":0.80}]"

Try JSON.stringify('[{"country_code" : "USA"}]') - as long as you are trying to stringify a string the result is what you get. The best response it just stringified array — Krzysztof Safjanowski
– Krzysztof Safjanowski, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 14:24
@KrzysztofSafjanowski you stringify a string that already contains data encoded as JSON. — t.niese
– t.niese, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 14:47

hjpotter92 · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 14:26:57Z

1

Your dataStr is actually a string, and res.json call is sending the string as such. If you wish to send the data as JSON, don't put it as a string, but a JS object/array (or use JSON.parse):

var dataStr = [{"country_code" : "USA", "country_name" : "United States","bac_limit" : 0.80}, { "country_code" : "CAN", "country_name" : "United States","bac_limit":0.80}]
// alternatively, JSON.parse(dataStr)
connectToMongoDb()

server.get('/', function(req, res){
 country = req.query.country
 res.json(dataStr)
})

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 14:26

hjpotter92

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