Stringify & Parse

JSON.stringify()

The JSON.stringify() method usually converts a JavaScript array or an object into a JSON string. Consider an array called droids, say, of the well-known droid characters in Star Wars.

					
					var droids = ["R2-D2", "C-3PO", "BB-8"];
					
				

The above array can be converted into a JSON string using the command below

					
					var d  = JSON.stringify(droids);
					
				

Since the variable d above is assigned to the stringified string, the commands d[0] and d.length below

					> d[0];
					> d.length;
					
				

returns the first character ([) and the total length of the JSON string (24) respectively.

JSON.parse()

JSON.parse() does just the opposite of JSON.stringify() - it parses a well-formed JSON string and returns a JavaScript object. The stringified JSON text in the variable d above can be converted into a JavaScript object as

					
					JSON.parse(d);
					
				

Similarly, we can convert JavaScript objects into JSON strings using the JSON.stringify() method. Note that in the above section we have applied JSON.stringify() on an array. Consider the object below

					
					var droid = {
						name:"BB-8", 
						year:2015, 
						episode:"VII"
					};
					
				

As with arrays above, the same can be applied to it

					
					var d  = JSON.stringify(droid);