How can I remove parts of my JSON input for which the value is brackets in Javascript?

Question

If I have a JSON input like the below:

{
  "a": [],
  "b" : "cat",
  "c" : "10001",
  "g" : "",
  "h" : {
      "d": {},
      "m": []
  }   
}

How could I write a function that would remove all rows where the value is brackets: {} or [], resulting in:

{
  "b" : "cat",
  "c" : "10001",
  "g" : ""
}

"hash" ? What hash. Just iterate and remove items. What's exactly the problem ? — Denys Séguret, Mar 16 '17 at 15:33
Sorry, I am just not sure what to use in Javascript to check if a value is brackets....... — Nerl, Mar 16 '17 at 15:34
Try `for(var i in obj) if(typeof obj[i] == 'object') delete obj[i]` — Nenad Vracar, Mar 16 '17 at 15:35
@NenadVracar oh I just want it to delete the object if it is empty brackets though, would it delete brackets with values in it as well? — Nerl, Mar 16 '17 at 15:37
@NenadVracar yup because both values inside were empty, so it would end up with empty brackets and consequently get deleted — Nerl, Mar 16 '17 at 15:40
@Nerl Could you clarify your last comment, if so then re-check your desired output! — ibrahim mahrir, Mar 16 '17 at 15:40
What if you have property like this `"h" : {"d": {},"m": [{'asdf': [{"c": {}}]}]} `? — Nenad Vracar, Mar 16 '17 at 15:42
@NenadVracar Ah, then I'd want the whole thing to get deleted, but if it was "h" : {"d": {"hi"},"m": [{'asdf': [{"c": {}}]}]}, I'd want was "h" : {"d": {"hi"}} — Nerl, Mar 16 '17 at 15:43
Check my answer bellow I've updated it! By the way it uses **recursion**! — ibrahim mahrir, Mar 16 '17 at 15:53

ibrahim mahrir · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-16T15:52:22.577

function clean(obj) {
  for(var key in obj) {
    if(obj[key] instanceof Array && ! obj[key].length) // if it's an array and it's empty
      delete obj[key];                                 // then remove it
    else if(typeof obj[key] === "object") {            // if it's an object
      clean(obj[key]);                                 // clean it
      if(! Object.keys(obj[key]).length)               // and if after cleaning it turned out to be empty
        delete obj[key];                               // then remove it
    }
  }
}

var obj = {
  "a": [],
  "b" : "cat",
  "c" : "10001",
  "d" : [55, 80],
  "g" : "",
  "h" : {
      "d": {},
      "m": []
  },
  "i" : {
      "d": {
        "l": 0
      },
      "m": []
  }   
};

clean(obj);
console.log(obj);

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '17 at 15:35

You can use this function to iterate through the properties of your object and only grab the values that are not of the type "object". Note the function also checks hasOwnProperty to ensure that it's not an object's prototype property

var strippedObject;
for (var property in object) {
    if (object.hasOwnProperty(property)) {
        if(typeof object[property] != "object"){
            strippedObject[property] = object[property];
        }
    }
}

How can I remove parts of my JSON input for which the value is brackets in Javascript?

2 Answers2