Put quotes in JSON array

Question

I am trying to create a JSON array but it doesn't work:

var test = '{"chapters":[{"id":"test1", "label":"Observation", "handler":"openChapter("observation")"}]}';

I know the problem are the quotes around observation in the handler.

I tried this but it doesn't work either (not surprising):

var test = '{"chapters":[{"id":"test1", "label":"Observation", "handler":"openChapter(\"observation\")"}]}';

How can I do?

Thank you for your help!

I think this is a duplicate of this post :) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4031324/javascript-how-escape-quotes-in-a-var-to-pass-data-through-json — mambax, Jul 15 '15 at 08:37
not exactly the case: the OP was already trying to escape the quote — franciscod, Jul 15 '15 at 08:41
What I needed is in the answers of the post but not the chosen one! — Powkachu, Jul 15 '15 at 08:43

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '15 at 08:39

4

You need to escape it again (\\"), you want the literal \ to be in the string so JSON.parse can read it:

var test = '{"chapters":[{"id":"test1", "label":"Observation", "handler":"openChapter(\\"observation\\")"}]}';

answered Jul 15 '15 at 08:39

franciscod

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '15 at 08:43

Well the correct way to escape double quotes (") is indeed a single backslash (\).

However you're creating a variable test as a String and not as a JSON object. If you want to create a JSON object you can do:

var test = {"chapters":[{"id":"test1", "label":"Observation", "handler":"openChapter(\"observation\")"}]};

But if you want to create it as a string for use with JSON.parse for example, you need to escape the backslashes now with another backslash:

var test = '{"chapters":[{"id":"test1", "label":"Observation", "handler":"openChapter(\\"observation\\")"}]}';
var json = JSON.parse(test);

JSON definition of a string:

A string is a sequence of zero or more Unicode characters, wrapped in double quotes, using backslash escapes.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '15 at 08:56

Not sure what you're trying to do ? As I understand it, you want to create in JavaScript datas to be sent in a JSON form ?

Then you should :

Regarding JS object literals, see this webpage :
http://www.dyn-web.com/tutorials/object-literal/

You can then serialize this object to a JSON string using JSON.stringify().

3 Answers3