Can readFileSync from node.js fs library load an array from a text file?

Question

My text file contains one small array (for simplicity here) of two objects as shown in array1. I want to load this text file and manipulate the array in further downstream steps. When it loads, it says it is a string, and as such prohibits array manipulation. How can load and manipulate my array after it loads?

var request = require('request');
var cheerio = require('cheerio'),
var fs = require('fs');

array1 = fs.readFileSync('smallArray.txt', 'utf8');
console.log(typeof array1);
//logs string!! 

var array2 = [{"username":"one","name":"158","EF":40.745954}, {"username":"two","name":"216","EF":24.016202}; 
console.log(typeof array2);
// logs object!!

...also, tags like "array" and "fs" generally aren't useful because they aren't specific to your language and library -- "fs" can mean "filesystem", for instance, it doesn't mean the node.js fs library universally enough that someone can search for the fs tag in StackOverflow and get a useful result (which is the kind of thing that tags here are meant to be good for). — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 1:21

mscdex · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-03 01:34:46Z

1

If smallArray.txt contains valid JSON, all you need to do is parse the contents:

array1 = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('smallArray.txt', 'utf8'));

answered Sep 3, 2016 at 1:34

mscdex

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jfriend00 · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-03 05:02:19Z

1

If the data in the file is valid JSON and you rename smallArray.txt to smallArray.json, you can just use require() and it will automatically parse it like this:

var array1 = require('smallArray.json');

answered Sep 3, 2016 at 5:02

jfriend00

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1 Comment

jfriend00 Over a year ago

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