turn string into an array?

Question

If I have this below as a string, how can I easily make that into an array?

"[[0.01,4.99,0.01],[5,14.95,0.05]]"

I want the same result as:

var x = [[0.01,4.99,0.01],[5,14.95,0.05]];

Answer 1

var x = JSON.parse("[[0.01,4.99,0.01],[5,14.95,0.05]]");

Or the way jQuery does JSON parsing (better than eval):

var x = (new Function("return " + "[[0.01,4.99,0.01],[5,14.95,0.05]]"))();

To make this answer complete, you can use a polyfill for older browsers to support JSON.parse and JSON.stringify. I recommend json3, because Crockfords json2 is to crockfordy (insiders know what I mean).

• Andras Zoltan: Big up for the function version :)

Answer 2

var x = JSON.parse("[[0.01,4.99,0.01],[5,14.95,0.05]]");

For older browsers that don't have the built-in JSON object you might want to download Crockford's json2.js, which defines a JSON object with the same API if it's not already defined.

• kapa: +1 for mentioning json2.js. Related: stackoverflow.com/questions/891299/…
• Salketer: As a side note, you might be tempted to use eval() instead of JSON.parse for browsers that do not have JSON defined, but do NOT. Use Corckford's js to make it work.