Convert object string to JSON

Question

How can I convert a string that describes an object into a JSON string using JavaScript (or jQuery)?

e.g: Convert this (NOT a valid JSON string):

var str = "{ hello: 'world', places: ['Africa', 'America', 'Asia', 'Australia'] }"

into this:

str = '{ "hello": "world", "places": ["Africa", "America", "Asia", "Australia"] }'

I would love to avoid using eval() if possible.

Answer 1

There's a much simpler way to accomplish this feat, just hijack the onclick attribute of a dummy element to force a return of your string as a JavaScript object:

var jsonify = (function(div){
  return function(json){
    div.setAttribute('onclick', 'this.__json__ = ' + json);
    div.click();
    return div.__json__;
  }
})(document.createElement('div'));

// Let's say you had a string like '{ one: 1 }' (malformed, a key without quotes)
// jsonify('{ one: 1 }') will output a good ol' JS object ;)

Here's a demo: http://codepen.io/csuwldcat/pen/dfzsu (open your console)

Answer 2

A solution with one regex and not using eval:

str.replace(/([\s\S]*?)(')(.+?)(')([\s\S]*?)/g, "$1\"$3\"$5")

This I believe should work for multiple lines and all possible occurrences (/g flag) of single-quote 'string' replaced with double-quote "string".

Answer 3

Use simple code in the link below :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/es-es/library/ie/cc836466%28v=vs.94%29.aspx

var jsontext = '{"firstname":"Jesper","surname":"Aaberg","phone":["555-0100","555-0120"]}';
var contact = JSON.parse(jsontext);

and reverse

var str = JSON.stringify(arr);

Answer 4

Douglas Crockford has a converter, but I'm not sure it will help with bad JSON to good JSON.

https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js

Answer 5

You need to use "eval" then JSON.stringify then JSON.parse to the result.

 var errorString= "{ hello: 'world', places: ['Africa', 'America', 'Asia', 'Australia'] }";
 var jsonValidString = JSON.stringify(eval("(" + errorString+ ")"));
 var JSONObj=JSON.parse(jsonValidString);

Answer 6

jQuery.parseJSON

str = jQuery.parseJSON(str)

Edit. This is provided you have a valid JSON string