JSON length in javascript returns number of character instead of number of array elements

Question

Hi I have problem and I tried similar things and answer but neither Object.keys(data).length doesn't help me. Here is my JSON

{
    "POSTS": [
        [
            {
                "term_id": 1,
                "name": "Uncategorized",
                "slug": "uncategorized",
                "term_group": 0,
                "term_taxonomy_id": 1,
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "description": "",
                "parent": 0,
                "count": 1,
                "filter": "raw",
                "cat_ID": 1,
                "category_count": 1,
                "category_description": "",
                "cat_name": "Uncategorized",
                "category_nicename": "uncategorized",
                "category_parent": 0
            },
            {
                "term_id": 2,
                "name": "Nova",
                "slug": "nova",
                "term_group": 0,
                "term_taxonomy_id": 2,
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "description": "",
                "parent": 0,
                "count": 1,
                "filter": "raw",
                "cat_ID": 2,
                "category_count": 1,
                "category_description": "",
                "cat_name": "Nova",
                "category_nicename": "nova",
                "category_parent": 0
            },
            {
                "term_id": 3,
                "name": "nova1",
                "slug": "nova1",
                "term_group": 0,
                "term_taxonomy_id": 3,
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "description": "",
                "parent": 0,
                "count": 1,
                "filter": "raw",
                "cat_ID": 3,
                "category_count": 1,
                "category_description": "",
                "cat_name": "nova1",
                "category_nicename": "nova1",
                "category_parent": 0
            },
            {
                "term_id": 4,
                "name": "nova2",
                "slug": "nova2",
                "term_group": 0,
                "term_taxonomy_id": 4,
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "description": "",
                "parent": 3,
                "count": 1,
                "filter": "raw",
                "cat_ID": 4,
                "category_count": 1,
                "category_description": "",
                "cat_name": "nova2",
                "category_nicename": "nova2",
                "category_parent": 3
            },
            {
                "term_id": 5,
                "name": "nova3",
                "slug": "nova3",
                "term_group": 0,
                "term_taxonomy_id": 5,
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "description": "",
                "parent": 3,
                "count": 1,
                "filter": "raw",
                "cat_ID": 5,
                "category_count": 1,
                "category_description": "",
                "cat_name": "nova3",
                "category_nicename": "nova3",
                "category_parent": 3
            }
        ]
    ],
    "success": 1
}

And here is my javascript code :

<select id ="new" name="new"></select>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.3.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
   $(document).ready(function(e) {
        var select = document.getElementById("new");
        $.ajax({
             type: "POST",
             url: "wp-content/themes/twentyfourteen/ajax.php", // this script returns my JSON 
             data: ({canum: 0}), 
             success: function(data){
                 console.log(Object.keys(data).length);
             }
        });
   });
</script>

This returns me 1445 as length not 5 as I need, how to get number of segments in JSON how to get 5 instead of number of characters ?

Can you help me please ? Thank you.

Your json will just be a string until you parse it, right? api.jquery.com/jquery.parsejson — Nick
– Nick, Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 21:38

KevBot · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-04 21:49:21Z

7

You need to JSON.parse the data. In your case it is not sent as application/json, it is being sent as text/html.

Your success function should do something like this:

success: function(data){
    data = JSON.parse(data);
    console.log(Object.keys(data).length);
}

As an alternative, you can try this though if you do not want to JSON.parse the data and just have jQuery manage it. You can pass the dataType you are expecting back from the server in your config object:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "wp-content/themes/twentyfourteen/ajax.php", // this script returns my JSON 
    data: ({canum: 0}),
    success: function (data) {
        console.log(Object.keys(data).length);
    },
    dataType: 'json' // <- Add this
});

Here is the documentation for $.ajax which talks about the options for that key.

And as one last option, you can use $.getJson() instead which is a shorthand version of the above.

edited Jul 4, 2016 at 21:49

answered Jul 4, 2016 at 21:42

KevBot

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2 Comments

Dayle Salmon Over a year ago

As this guy says... the easiest way to parse it is to just add dataType: 'json' to the ajax request.

cfhpanteracfh Over a year ago

@KevBot Thank you very much the moment I opened my android app I remembered that I need to do the parsing. Thank you for your solutions and answers.

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