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JavaScript json_encode function

A JavaScript equivalent of PHP’s json_encode

json/json_encode.js raw on github
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function json_encode (mixed_val) {
  // http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net
  // +      original by: Public Domain (http://www.json.org/json2.js)
  // + reimplemented by: Kevin van Zonneveld (http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net)
  // +      improved by: Michael White
  // +      input by: felix
  // +      bugfixed by: Brett Zamir (http://brett-zamir.me)
  // *        example 1: json_encode(['e', {pluribus: 'unum'}]);
  // *        returns 1: '[\n    "e",\n    {\n    "pluribus": "unum"\n}\n]'
/*
    http://www.JSON.org/json2.js
    2008-11-19
    Public Domain.
    NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
    See http://www.JSON.org/js.html
  */
  var retVal, json = this.window.JSON;
  try {
    if (typeof json === 'object' && typeof json.stringify === 'function') {
      retVal = json.stringify(mixed_val); // Errors will not be caught here if our own equivalent to resource
      //  (an instance of PHPJS_Resource) is used
      if (retVal === undefined) {
        throw new SyntaxError('json_encode');
      }
      return retVal;
    }

    var value = mixed_val;

    var quote = function (string) {
      var escapable = /[\\\"\u0000-\u001f\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/g;
      var meta = { // table of character substitutions
        '\b': '\\b',
        '\t': '\\t',
        '\n': '\\n',
        '\f': '\\f',
        '\r': '\\r',
        '"': '\\"',
        '\\': '\\\\'
      };

      escapable.lastIndex = 0;
      return escapable.test(string) ? '"' + string.replace(escapable, function (a) {
        var c = meta[a];
        return typeof c === 'string' ? c : '\\u' + ('0000' + a.charCodeAt(0).toString(16)).slice(-4);
      }) + '"' : '"' + string + '"';
    };

    var str = function (key, holder) {
      var gap = '';
      var indent = '    ';
      var i = 0; // The loop counter.
      var k = ''; // The member key.
      var v = ''; // The member value.
      var length = 0;
      var mind = gap;
      var partial = [];
      var value = holder[key];

      // If the value has a toJSON method, call it to obtain a replacement value.
      if (value && typeof value === 'object' && typeof value.toJSON === 'function') {
        value = value.toJSON(key);
      }

      // What happens next depends on the value's type.
      switch (typeof value) {
      case 'string':
        return quote(value);

      case 'number':
        // JSON numbers must be finite. Encode non-finite numbers as null.
        return isFinite(value) ? String(value) : 'null';

      case 'boolean':
      case 'null':
        // If the value is a boolean or null, convert it to a string. Note:
        // typeof null does not produce 'null'. The case is included here in
        // the remote chance that this gets fixed someday.
        return String(value);

      case 'object':
        // If the type is 'object', we might be dealing with an object or an array or
        // null.
        // Due to a specification blunder in ECMAScript, typeof null is 'object',
        // so watch out for that case.
        if (!value) {
          return 'null';
        }
        if ((this.PHPJS_Resource && value instanceof this.PHPJS_Resource) || (window.PHPJS_Resource && value instanceof window.PHPJS_Resource)) {
          throw new SyntaxError('json_encode');
        }

        // Make an array to hold the partial results of stringifying this object value.
        gap += indent;
        partial = [];

        // Is the value an array?
        if (Object.prototype.toString.apply(value) === '[object Array]') {
          // The value is an array. Stringify every element. Use null as a placeholder
          // for non-JSON values.
          length = value.length;
          for (i = 0; i < length; i += 1) {
            partial[i] = str(i, value) || 'null';
          }

          // Join all of the elements together, separated with commas, and wrap them in
          // brackets.
          v = partial.length === 0 ? '[]' : gap ? '[\n' + gap + partial.join(',\n' + gap) + '\n' + mind + ']' : '[' + partial.join(',') + ']';
          gap = mind;
          return v;
        }

        // Iterate through all of the keys in the object.
        for (k in value) {
          if (Object.hasOwnProperty.call(value, k)) {
            v = str(k, value);
            if (v) {
              partial.push(quote(k) + (gap ? ': ' : ':') + v);
            }
          }
        }

        // Join all of the member texts together, separated with commas,
        // and wrap them in braces.
        v = partial.length === 0 ? '{}' : gap ? '{\n' + gap + partial.join(',\n' + gap) + '\n' + mind + '}' : '{' + partial.join(',') + '}';
        gap = mind;
        return v;
      case 'undefined':
        // Fall-through
      case 'function':
        // Fall-through
      default:
        throw new SyntaxError('json_encode');
      }
    };

    // Make a fake root object containing our value under the key of ''.
    // Return the result of stringifying the value.
    return str('', {
      '': value
    });

  } catch (err) { // Todo: ensure error handling above throws a SyntaxError in all cases where it could
    // (i.e., when the JSON global is not available and there is an error)
    if (!(err instanceof SyntaxError)) {
      throw new Error('Unexpected error type in json_encode()');
    }
    this.php_js = this.php_js || {};
    this.php_js.last_error_json = 4; // usable by json_last_error()
    return null;
  }
}

Example 1

This code

example
1
json_encode(['e', {pluribus: 'unum'}]);

Should return

returns
1
'[\n    "e",\n    {\n    "pluribus": "unum"\n}\n]'

Other PHP functions in the json extension

Legacy comments

These were imported from our old site. Please use disqus below for new comments

????? ???? on 2012-03-22 13:56:33
News articles and new in the world of tourism
4545 on 2012-02-09 14:53:07
432
Brett Zamir on 2010-11-05 14:14:37
@tony: Can you give the sample you are trying to encode…
tony on 2010-11-05 10:32:30
this function has a problem with ie8.. it says it expects an hex number near line 50
Brett Zamir on 2010-04-20 08:00:39
Fixed in Git. Thanks for pointing out the problem, felix. Btw, one can’t only check for a variable like that (as one can in PHP) since your example will also cause an undefined error. In JS, you have to test a variable as a property, including against the global: e.g., these are ok: if (window.someVar) {} if (this.someVar) {} but this is not: if (someVar) {}
felix on 2010-04-20 01:52:35
Hi as already listed above, PHPJS_Resource is not defined. This triggers an unexpected error for me at least if I try to use this function standalone (FF 3.5.9). How about changing lines ## 95-97 to:

if (PHPJS_Resource && value instanceof PHPJS_Resource) {                        
    throw new SyntaxError('json_encode');
}
?
Kevin van Zonneveld on 2009-11-07 18:14:41
Excellent!
Brett Zamir on 2009-10-26 00:49:03
Have made a fix (NULL to null) and added support for json_last_error(); see commits at http://github.com/kvz/phpjs/commits/master/
Kevin van Zonneveld on 2009-10-25 14:08:02
@ Michael White: Ok great that you did the research on this Michael! I’ve implemented your fixes: http://github.com/kvz/phpjs/commit/cae72555c08c11ec416f1c8ecfcd5e42509cb46d
Michael White on 2009-10-20 03:13:43
@kevin I didn’t know what it returned because last time I ran into this in PHP I was encountering an infinite loop because of it (long story). However, I tested it in a simple script just now and I’m getting NULL output. It also throws a PHP error warning that the type is unsupported. This happens if a resource is present anywhere in the data to be encoded.
Brett Zamir on 2009-10-18 07:20:33
@Michael: If you try it with a resource object, what does it return in PHP? See also my comment in json_decode().
Michael White on 2009-10-18 02:38:03
The part that uses native browser JSON objects should be contained in a try/catch block and return the proper value in accordance with how PHP handles bad input. (The only bad input in PHP seems to be resource objects). Should we return "null" or an empty string or false here upon error?

try {
    return json.stringify(mixed_val);
}
catch(err) {
    return mixed_val;
}


Brett Zamir on 2009-06-18 06:55:21
@T. J. Leahy: Fixed in SVN. Thanks for the report! See also my note at http://phpjs.org/functions/json_decode:456#comment_64602
T.J. Leahy on 2009-06-17 06:06:07
This function should check to see if the browser has native JSON encoding first (IE8, FF 3.5) and use that when available. Would make it faster and safer then running the object against multiple regular expressions. See http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/security-performance-native-json/

if (typeof JSON == "object" && typeof JSON.stringify == "function") {
    return JSON.stringify(str_json);
}

Comments