Javascript Recursion for creating a JSON object

Question

needing some advice on how to do this properly recursively.

Basically what I'm doing, is entering in a bunch of text and it returns it as JSON.

For example:

The text:

q
b
name:rawr

Returns:

[
 "q",
 "b",
 {
 "name": "rawr"
 }
]

And the following input:

q
b
name:rawr:awesome

Would return (output format is not important):

[
 "q",
 "b",
 {
 "name": {
 "rawr": "awesome"
 }
 }
]

---

How can I modify the following code to allow a recursive way to have objects in objects.

var jsonify = function(input){
 var listItems = input, myArray = [], end = [], i, item;
 var items = listItems.split('\r\n');
 // Loop through all the items
 for(i = 0; i < items.length; i++){
 item = items[i].split(':');
 // If there is a value, then split it to create an object
 if(item[1] !== undefined){
 var obj = {};
 obj[item[0]] = item[1]; 
 end.push(obj);
 }
 else{
 end.push(item[0]);
 }
 }
 // return the results
 return end;
};

Answer 1

I don't think recursion is the right approach here, a loop could do that as well:

var itemparts = items[i].split(':');
var value = itemparts.pop();
while (itemparts.length) {
 var obj = {};
 obj[itemparts.pop()] = value;
 value = obj;
}
end.push(value);

Of course, as recursion and loops have equivalent might, you can do the same with a recursive function:

function recurse(parts) {
 if (parts.length == 1)
 return parts[0];
 // else
 var obj = {};
 obj[parts.shift()] = recurse(parts);
 return obj;
}
end.push(recurse(items[i].split(':')));

• Anthony Grist: Either works, though I think a recursive solution would likely be more readable.
• Jashwant: It reminds me of a line from a textbook. "Every recursion problem can be solved with loops but not viceversa." +1 for simple solution

Answer 2

Here is a solution with recursion:

var data = [];
function createJSON(input) {
 var rows = input.split("\n");
 for(var i = 0; i < rows.length; i++) {
 data.push(createObject(rows[i].split(":")));
 }
 }
function createObject(array) {
 if(array.length === 1) {
 return array[0];
 } else {
 var obj = {};
 obj[array[0]] = createObject(array.splice(1));
 return obj;
 }
 }
createJSON("p\nq\nname:rawr:awesome");
console.log(data);