Javascript: JSON.stringify not working as expected

Question

I'm pulling JSON data from Wikipedia. However, I can't get it to stringify neatly and I don't understand why.

Here's my code.

request({url:formQuery(query), encoding:"utf8"}, (err, res, body) => {
    if (err) handleErr(err)
    console.log(JSON.stringify(body, null, 3))
})

If I just use plain console.log(body), the JSON outputs like this:

{"continue":{"rvcontinue":"20160314150329|710029514","continue":"||"},"query":{"normalized":[{ ...

But if I use stringify (as above), it looks like this:

"{\"continue\":{\"rvcontinue\":\"20160314150329|710029514\",\"continue\":\"||\"},\"query\":{\"normalized\":[{ ...

Stringify is adding a quote to the beginning of the string and escaping subsequent ones.

Why is this happening? Any help would be welcome.

body it's already a string, thats why you stringify and get that output — Maposa Takalani
– Maposa Takalani, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 9:25
JSON.stringify converts json to string...that's correct output — Nishanth Matha
– Nishanth Matha, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 9:27
Yes. I needed to convert the body into a JSON object using parse. — user3574603
– user3574603, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 9:32

node_modules · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18 09:34:56Z

1

Your JSON data is fine, the function add's slashes to the output because there are quotes in the input. The quotes around property names doesn't have to to be escaped to avoid conflicts when parsing the JSON string/output

edited Apr 18, 2016 at 9:34

answered Apr 18, 2016 at 9:27

node_modules

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user3574603 · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18 09:50:24Z

1

~~I needed to parse the body string into a JSON object first.~~ If I parse the body string, it works.

This works fine:

request({url:formQuery(query), encoding:"utf8"}, (err, res, body) => {
    if (err) handleErr(err)
    let json = JSON.parse(body);
    console.log(JSON.stringify(json, null, 3))

})

edited Apr 18, 2016 at 9:50

answered Apr 18, 2016 at 9:31

user3574603

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3 Comments

RobG Over a year ago

The only "JSON object" is the one that is built–in. There are strings formatted as JSON that can be parsed to create objects.

Quentin Roy Over a year ago

So you get a string encoded JSON, you decode it, then you string encode it again. Isn't it a bit counterproductive? The only reason for this is if you need a human readable encoding.

David Callanan Over a year ago

@QuentinRoy That's what it looks like OP intends because of the additional parameters being passed in.

superui · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18 09:30:48Z

0

Without using stringify , you can use as below.

var oResultData = {"continue":{"rvcontinue":"1111","continue":"1111111"}};
var myRvcontinue = oResultData.continue.rvcontinue;
console.log(myRvcontinue); // 1111

answered Apr 18, 2016 at 9:30

superui

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Quentin Roy · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18 09:40:04Z

0

This is because the result of your request is already a string representing your object. If you stringify it again (as you do), you obtain a string representing a string representing your object.

edited Apr 18, 2016 at 9:40

answered Apr 18, 2016 at 9:33

Quentin Roy

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