The JSON looks like this:
[ {"animal":"dog", "sound": "bark"},
{"animal":"cat", "sound": "meow"} ]
and I want to iterate each record {...} inside the brackets [ ], first the dog-record and then the cat-record. If it is possible to reference each record in turn using $.each(), how is that done?
I am assuming we are starting from a JSON string, rather than an actual javascript array notation (it was unclear to me from the question as to what you are starting with). Here is some sample usage:
var json = '[{"animal":"dog", "sound": "bark"},{"animal":"cat", "sound": "meow"}]';
var jsonObjectArray = $.parseJSON(json);
$.each(jsonObjectArray, function(i, obj) {
// do something
console.log(obj.animal);
console.log(obj.sound);
});
<script>
With an array in JSON format, you can directly access the variable names.
If you are creating this JSON from a String, then @Mike is right, you must parse the JSON first. I was under the assumption that you had JSON returned from a server POST.
var animals_json = '[{"animal":"dog", "sound": "bark"}, {"animal":"cat", "sound": "meow"}]';
var animals_parsed = $.parseJSON(animals_json);
$.each(animals_parsed, function (i, elem) {
console.log(elem.animal + " makes a " + elem.sound);
});
If your JSON is returned from a server side, from say, a PHP page, then you can use it without parsing:
// SERVER SIDE
<?php
//... create JSON
$animals = array(
array('animal' => 'dog', 'sound' => 'bark'),
array('animal' => 'cat', 'sound' => 'meow')
);
?>
// CLIENT SIDE
<html>
<script>
// RETURN FROM PHP PAGE ECHO VIA AJAX PERHAPS //
var animals = <?php echo json_encode($animals) ?>;
$.each(animals, function (i, elem) {
console.log(elem.animal + " makes a " + elem.sound);
});
</script>
</html>
json_encode($array) from my PHP function, and then I immediately use $.each to iterate it. Where is the String-> object conversion happening that you speak of? I have updated my code above to reflect this situation.