convert a string to JSON object array- NOdejs

Question

Lets presume I am sending a POST request to /api/products. My body is like below

{
      "products":[
                {
                    "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                    "status":"true"
                },
                {
                    "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                    "status":"true"
                }
     ]
}

In my route I am trying to convert the above products to a JSON Object;

Below is my server code

const { products } = req.body;
console.log(JSON.parse(products));

but this gives me the error "message": "Something went wrong Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1"

How can i achieve this??

Cheers

Screenshots added

Tried below as well. But no luck

Nothing works.

const products = req.body;
console.dir(typeof products); // 'object'
console.dir(products); // { products: '[object Object]' } 

const { products } = req.body;
console.dir(typeof products); // 'string'
console.dir(products); // '[object Object]'

postman developer console is as below. Doesnt seem to be an issue

{
    "products":[
            {
                "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                "status":"true"
            },
            {
                "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                "status":"true"
            }
    ]
}

If that's your body, it's not valid JSON--you can't have a property key outside an object. (Is that the body?) — Dave Newton
– Dave Newton, Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 15:25
"In my route I am trying to convert the above products to a JSON Object;" JSON is a textual notation for data exchange. (More here.) If you're dealing with JavaScript source code, and not dealing with a string, you're not dealing with JSON. It sounds like you're trying to convert a string containing JSON to an object (not a JSON object, just an object). — T.J. Crowder
– T.J. Crowder, Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 15:27

Wasif Shahjahan · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-03 15:36:12Z

1

It's not a JSON object, JSON objects are surrounded by curly braces.

if you return {"products": [ { "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g", "status":"true" }, { "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g", "status":"true" } ]}

then it will be worked.

answered Sep 3, 2020 at 15:36

Wasif Shahjahan

3763 silver badges9 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

T.J. Crowder · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-03 15:32:38Z

1

The best thing to do would be to fix what you're sending to /api/products by putting {} around it, like this:

{
    "products":[
            {
                "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                "status":"true"
            },
            {
                "id":"5f5065e44a12bd00232bcc6g",
                "status":"true"
            }
    ]
}

Now it's valid JSON, and you can convert it via JSON.parse:

const obj = JSON.parse(req.body);
console.log(obj);
const { products } = obj;

or just

const { products } = JSON.parse(req.body);

Notice I'm using the entire body there. That will give you an object with a property (products) with the array of products. Alternatively, instead of parsing it manually, you could use middleware that would parse it automatically so that req.body is the parsed result, in which case it's just:

console.log(req.body);
const { products } = req.body;

If for some reason you can't send correct JSON, but it will always be in the form you've shown, you could add the {} afterward like this:

const obj = JSON.parse("{" + req.body + "}");
console.log(obj);
const { products } = obj;

or just

const { products } = JSON.parse("{" + req.body + "}");

but I strongly recommend not doing that, not least because you can't use middleware and sending malformed data around tends not to be ideal. Instead, send valid JSON in the first place.

answered Sep 3, 2020 at 15:32

T.J. Crowder

1.1m201 gold badges2k silver badges2k bronze badges

6 Comments

Shanka Somasiri Over a year ago

I tried all your suggestions. But none of them work. i did console.log of my req.body and it shows below { product: '[object Object]' }. I am still wondering why this is not working

T.J. Crowder Over a year ago

From that it sounds like the client-side code isn't sending what you've put in your question. Specifically, it sounds like the client-side code is manually creating a JSON string (never a good idea) and using string concatenation (+) with an object. When you do that, the object gets converted to "[object Object]" and added to the string.

Shanka Somasiri Over a year ago

In that case what is the best way as you think T.J? I have added some screenshots as well

Alnitak Over a year ago

Is it possible that some middleware is already converting the body from JSON? Using console.dir instead of console.log would reveal that.

T.J. Crowder Over a year ago

@Alnitak - Indeed. As would a debugger.

|

Alnitak · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-03 15:57:39Z

1

Look at the content of your variable products, and your debugger.

In this line you're using an object destructuring assignment but the right hand side isn't an object, it's a string:

const { products } = req.body;

Try this instead:

const { products } = JSON.parse(req.body);

EDIT you appear to be using Express middleware or similar. There's a good chance that your object has already been converted from JSON so you just need your original line and not the JSON.parse line.

const { products } = req.body;
console.dir(products);

edited Sep 3, 2020 at 15:57

answered Sep 3, 2020 at 15:28

Alnitak

341k72 gold badges420 silver badges503 bronze badges

4 Comments

Dave Newton Over a year ago

This seems much more on the right track, with the caveat that it's not 100% clear what's actually in the body.

Alnitak Over a year ago

@DaveNewton yup - that body really should have { .. } around it,

Shanka Somasiri Over a year ago

I have added json middleware from body-parser

Alnitak Over a year ago

@ShankaSomasiri right, so you shouldn't need to also JSON.parse the body yourself!

Shanka Somasiri · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-04 05:51:02Z

0

Figured it out.

Thanks to @T.j and @Alnitak was able to get this sorted. Used

let obj = req.body;

But i had an issue with my validator.

body('products')
      .trim()
      .not()
      .isEmpty()
      .withMessage('Custom product must have a main product'),

In the above code using .trim() converted the products into a string and once I removed the trim() it works perectly. Thanks all for the thoughts

answered Sep 4, 2020 at 5:51

Shanka Somasiri

6711 gold badge11 silver badges35 bronze badges

Comments

Daniele Parisi · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-03 15:27:45Z

-2

Try with JSON.stringify()

Otherwise, maybe you were declaring an object (const { products }), try without the {}

answered Sep 3, 2020 at 15:27

Daniele Parisi

1

1 Comment

Dave Newton Over a year ago

OP claims they have a string, stringifying it would be... redundant.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

convert a string to JSON object array- NOdejs

5 Answers 5

Comments

6 Comments

4 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

Comments

6 Comments

4 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related