Convert a multidimensional javascript array to JSON?

Most of the popular JavaScript frameworks have JSON utility functions included. For instance, jQuery has a function that directly calls a url and loads the JSON result as an object : http://docs.jquery.com/Getjson

However, you can get an open-source JSON parser and stringifier from the json website :

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

Then, simply include the code and use the JSON.stringify() method on your array.


The "best" way has been provided by the other posters. If you don't need the full encoding features of the referenced libraries, and only need to encode simple arrays, then try this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Simple functions for encoding Javascript arrays into JSON</title>
<script type="text/javascript">

window.onload = function() {
  var a = [
    [0, 1, '2', 3],
    ['0', '1', 2],
    [],
    ['mf', 'cb']
  ],
  b = [
    0, '1', '2', 3, 'woohoo!'
  ];
  alert(array2dToJson(a, 'a', '\n'));
  alert(array1dToJson(b, 'b'));
};

function array2dToJson(a, p, nl) {
  var i, j, s = '{"' + p + '":[';
  nl = nl || '';
  for (i = 0; i < a.length; ++i) {
    s += nl + array1dToJson(a[i]);
    if (i < a.length - 1) {
      s += ',';
    }
  }
  s += nl + ']}';
  return s;
}

function array1dToJson(a, p) {
  var i, s = '[';
  for (i = 0; i < a.length; ++i) {
    if (typeof a[i] == 'string') {
      s += '"' + a[i] + '"';
    }
    else { // assume number type
      s += a[i];
    }
    if (i < a.length - 1) {
      s += ',';
    }
  }
  s += ']';
  if (p) {
    return '{"' + p + '":' + s + '}';
  }
  return s;
}

</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Tags:

Javascript

Arrays

Json

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