Javascript: Escape " from json string

Question

I've got a bit of a problem. I'm currently working on converting an old system to a newer version. In the old version, data requests were managed by Java applets, which had no problems with the "-char in the data. Now, though, I'm fetching the data from a database and converting it to a JSON-string using XSLT, and then - with the prototype-function .evalJSON() - making the string into an object. The XSL then structure the data like this (example) :

{rowsets: [ { rows: [ { "ID":"xxx","OtherProperty":"yyy" } ] } ] }

Which in it self is OK. Now,when there's some data in the database containing "-characters, the evalJSON() fails, because it destroys the usually well-formatted JSON string, like this:

{rowsets: [ { rows: [ { "ID":"xxx","OtherProperty":"yyy "more" zzz" } ] } ] }

Now, what i want to do, is escape the 'unwanted' "-chars somehow - without having to make some kind of Stored Procedure to du it server-side for me. I've tried to wrap my head around a RegEx, but I'm not very experienced in that area, and therefore I'm having a really hard time figuring it out.

If it's any help, the character sequences that are sure to be legal are: [":"] and [","] and the sequences that are likely to appear, and should be escaped, are: [\s"], ["\s], [",], [".] (\s indicates a whitespace)

All kinds of help is appreciated, even if it's some SQL that makes it all a lot easier :)

Thanks in advance!

It is very valid JSON, as long as there's no "-characters in the data set fetched from the database. Those characters is what i need to escape using some regular expression or something, before using the evalJSON() function. — Thor Jacobsen
– Thor Jacobsen, Commented Jul 16, 2010 at 6:47
"'m fetching the data from a database and converting it to a JSON-string using XSLT" - huh? Please post that code. This is what you need to fix to do the escaping. — Bergi
– Bergi, Commented Oct 6, 2023 at 14:48

annakata · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-15 15:09:16Z

1

If you're in XSLT land then you're reinventing the wheel. Google up "badgerfish" and see here for a fairly solid implementation. You may of course have other problems getting in the way, but first things first.

answered Jul 15, 2010 at 15:09

annakata

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2 Comments

Thor Jacobsen Over a year ago

Looking at the link you've given me, I can see that it's going to output the data just like the XSLT I'm using at the moment (ex. from site: { "alice": { "bob": [ { "$": "charlie" }, { "$": "david" } ] } }) - using "" to seperate properties and data is OK as long as there's no "-characters in the data - which in my case there is.

annakata Over a year ago

@freaktm: No, the xslt includes escape replacing content i.e. " -> \". Try it.

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-06 14:11:55Z

0

I ended up taking a shortcut, using a string-replace template in my XSL to replace the "-characters with " before returning the JSON to my javascript function, thus not needing to escape anything client-side.

(Used this: Link)

edited Oct 6, 2023 at 14:11

Glorfindel

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answered Jul 16, 2010 at 6:59

Thor Jacobsen

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