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

Your best and safest bet would be JSON5 – JSON for Humans. It is created specifically for that use case.

const result = JSON5.parse("{ hello: 'world', places: ['Africa', 'America', 'Asia', 'Australia'] }");

console.log(JSON.stringify(result));

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/json5/0.5.1/json5.min.js"></script>

Answer 2

Maybe you have to try this:

str = jQuery.parseJSON(str)

Answer 3

var str = "{ hello: 'world', places: ['Africa', 'America', 'Asia', 'Australia'] }" var fStr = str .replace(/([A-z]*)(:)/g, '"$1":') .replace(/'/g, "\"")

console.log(JSON.parse(fStr))

Sorry I am on my phone, here is a pic.

Answer 4

Just for the quirks of it, you can convert your string via babel-standalone

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

function toJSON() {
  return {
    visitor: {
      Identifier(path) {
        path.node.name = '"' + path.node.name + '"'
      },
      StringLiteral(path) {
        delete path.node.extra
      }
    }
  }
}
Babel.registerPlugin('toJSON', toJSON);
var parsed = Babel.transform('(' + str + ')', {
  plugins: ['toJSON']
});
var json = parsed.code.slice(1, -2)
console.log(JSON.parse(json))

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@babel/standalone/babel.min.js"></script>

Answer 5

Your string is not valid JSON, so JSON.parse (or jQuery's $.parseJSON) won't work.

One way would be to use eval to "parse" the "invalid" JSON, and then stringify it to "convert" it to valid JSON.

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

I suggest instead of trying to "fix" your invalid JSON, you start with valid JSON in the first place. How is str being generated, it should be fixed there, before it's generated, not after.

EDIT: You said (in the comments) this string is stored in a data attribute:

<div data-object="{hello:'world'}"></div>

I suggest you fix it here, so it can just be JSON.parsed. First, both they keys and values need to be quoted in double quotes. It should look like (single quoted attributes in HTML are valid):

<div data-object='{"hello":"world"}'></div>

Now, you can just use JSON.parse (or jQuery's $.parseJSON).

var str = '{"hello":"world"}';
var obj = JSON.parse(str);

Answer 6

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