Format JSON and save it using NodeJS

Question

I have a couple of JSON files that I generated using a tool. The problem is, even thought this JSONs are valid, they don't have any indentation at all.

I already tried something like this:

fs.readdir(path, function (err, files) {
    if (err) {
        return console.log('Unable to scan directory: ' + err);
    } 
    files.forEach((file) => {
        const pathToFile =  `../jsonFiles/${file}`;
        fs.readFile(pathToFile, 'utf-8', (err, data) => {
            fs.writeFile(pathToFile, JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(data, null, 4)), (err) => {
                 if (err) {
                     console.log(err)
                }
            });

        });
    });
});

Niklas · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-10 17:48:44Z

3

Just use JSON.stringify(data, null, 4) instead of JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(...)) and also add utf8 to the options of fs.writeFile:

fs.readdir(path, function (err, files) {
    if (err) {
        return console.log('Unable to scan directory: ' + err);
    } 
    files.forEach((file) => {
        const pathToFile =  `../jsonFiles/${file}`;
        fs.readFile(pathToFile, 'utf-8', (err, data) => {
            fs.writeFile(pathToFile, JSON.stringify(data, null, 4), 'utf8', (err) => {
                 if (err) {
                     console.log(err)
                }
            });

        });
    });
});

Edit: I read your question again. I think you switched parse and stringify of the data, that you read as a string. I fixed it:

fs.readdir(path, function (err, files) {
    if (err) {
        return console.log('Unable to scan directory: ' + err);
    } 
    files.forEach((file) => {
        const pathToFile =  `../jsonFiles/${file}`;
        fs.readFile(pathToFile, 'utf-8', (err, data) => {
            fs.writeFile(pathToFile, JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(data), null, 4), 'utf8', (err) => {
                 if (err) {
                     console.log(err)
                }
            });

        });
    });
});

edited Jun 10, 2020 at 17:48

answered Jun 10, 2020 at 17:40

Niklas

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4 Comments

Anon Over a year ago

Thanks for replying. In my case, this only adds a ton of '\' characters into the json

Niklas Over a year ago

@Anon I have edited my answer as well. Please have a look. I think I found the real issue in context.

Niklas Over a year ago

Thank you! Btw: You can use JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(data), null, '\t') to use tab to intend instead of four spaces.

Anon Over a year ago

Oh yes, that would be great. I really ignored the fact that I received the data as a string. Thanks for taking your time.

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