JSON object is treated as string

Question

I have an ajax call that returns the following JSON:

returnedData = "[ 
    { id: 1, firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Smith', address: '123 Spa Road', city: 'London', 
        orders: 
        [ 
            { product: 'TV', price: 599.99, quantity: 2, orderTotal: 1199.98 } 
        ]
    }
]";

var customers = JSON.parse (returnedData);
console.log(customers.length); // prints length of the string data

It treats it as string. However, it I assign the result directly.

var customers = [ 
    { id: 1, firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Smith', address: '123 Spa Road', city: 'London', 
        orders: 
        [ 
            { product: 'TV', price: 599.99, quantity: 2, orderTotal: 1199.98 } 
        ]
    }
];

console.log(customers.length); // prints 1 - the number of objects

Why is it like this? How can I assign it dynamically?

The way that code is written, it will not return anything but an error. "Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL" — epascarello
– epascarello, Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 14:14
That's not valid JSON. It would be a valid Javascript literal, but it's not JSON. — deceze
– deceze ♦, Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 14:14
The code isn't even valid JavaScript since you cannot have multiline strings in JS. — ThiefMaster
– ThiefMaster, Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 14:15
[{"id":1,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Smith","address":"123 Spa Road","city":"London","orders":[{"product":"TV","price":599.99,"quantity":2,"orderTotal":1199.98}]}] is valid JSON data. — Andy
– Andy, Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 14:16

epascarello · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 14:16:24Z

3

Run the code through http://jsonlint.com/ and you will find out you have errors in your code.

Pasting your object literal into the validator you will see

Parse error on line 2:
[    {        id: 1,        first
--------------^
Expecting 'STRING', '}'

You need to have double quotes around the name and string values.

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 14:16

epascarello

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Comments

Dwza · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 14:51:11Z

1

you have problems with you string...

here is your well formed json

var returnedData ='[
    {
        "id": 1,
        "firstName": "John",
        "lastName": "Smith",
        "address": "123SpaRoad",
        "city": "London",
        "orders": [
            {
                "product": "TV",
                "price": 599.99,
                "quantity": 2,
                "orderTotal": 1199.98
            }
        ]
    }
]';

single quotes must be escaped or don't use them... you can use them when you open and close the string so its more well formed than other posibilitys (correted because of useful comment from @Victor Canova)

edited Dec 19, 2013 at 14:51

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 14:22

Dwza

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2 Comments

Dwza Over a year ago

you can always check your json code here: http://jsonlint.com/

Vitor Canova Over a year ago

Just curious, "single quotes arent allowed" you meant that they must be scaped if used inside JSON, right?

D.Evangelista · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 14:17:41Z

1

You have to wrap the attributes with double quotes:

var returnedData = '[{ "id": 1, "firstName": "John"}]';

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 14:17

D.Evangelista

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Comments

sfb · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 14:21:11Z

1

The string you're receiving isn't a valid JSON object. Be careful not to confuse JSON and JavaScript. Look at this example:

var returnedData = '[ { "id": 1, "firstName": "John", "lastName": "Smith", "address": "123 Spa Road", "city": "London", "orders": [ { "product": "TV", "price": 599.99, "quantity": 2, "orderTotal": 1199.98 } ] } ]';

var customers = JSON.parse (returnedData);
console.log(customers.length); // the correct length now.

Note that the only difference is that I put the keys in the dictionary within "'s.

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 14:21

sfb

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1 Comment

user3087969 Over a year ago

Thank you. That is what I was missing.

Italo Borssatto · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 14:28:40Z

1

returnedData isn't a valid JSON message (attributes are not wrapped with double quotes), but you can treat it as JS doing

var customers = eval(returnedData);

If you want to use JSON.parse, correct the returnedData.

edited Dec 19, 2013 at 14:28

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 14:20

Italo Borssatto

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