JSON

JavaScript Object Notation, or JSON, gives us the ability to send JavaScript over a network/internet. To do this, we need to use the global JSON object to turn it into a string to send it over the wire…

let animal = {
    name: ‘Bongo’,
    type: ‘gorilla’
}
console.log(JSON.stringify(animal)); 

This will output {“name”:”Bongo”,”type”:”gorilla”}. So we can send this to any API endpoint on the web. Notice that it put the items into quotes…it stringified it. We can also do it with an array…

let animals = [
    { name: ‘Bongo’},
    { name: ‘George’}
]
console.log(JSON.stringify(animals)); 

In this example, the output would be [{“name”:”Bongo”},{“name”:”George”}].

We can send stringified JavaScript using the JSON object, but wat about receiving and parsing it? Again, the JSON object helps us out…

let jsonAnimals =  [
    { “name” : “Bongo”},
    { “name” : “George”}
];
let animals = JSON.parse(jsonAnimals); console.log(animals); 

This would not return the string version of the object, but rather the unstringified JavaScript object so you can use it in your code.

Note: You may notice a strange syntax in this code…backticks. Backticks are found on your keyboard on the button above the tab. These were introduced in ES2015. We can use them to create templates so that we do not have to keep the JavaScript all on a single line. It makes reading it easier.

Happy Coding!

Clay Hess