Create object from a string, javascript

Question

Is it possible to create an object from a string content?

For example, I have a string "{ name: John }" how can I simply parse it to create an object { name: 'John' } ?

UPDATE

Unfortunately JSON.parse won't work for me, there can be also some tricky strings (if you used mongodb you know), e.g. { name: John, email: { $exists: true } }

Maybe there is another solution like mongodb query parser?

• Blender: Why are you using this format?
• Blender: Where are you getting these strings from?
• Kosmetika: user puts them into shell

Answer 1

this is one way to do it. //code for trim method

 if(typeof String.prototype.trim !== 'function') {
 String.prototype.trim = function() {
 return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); 
 }
 }
 var s = "{ name: John }";
 var arr = s.substring(1,s.length-1).trim().split(':');
 var obj = {};
 obj[arr[0]]=arr[1];
 alert(obj.name);

• user1823761: What about "{ name: John, family: Resig }" ?
• Kosmetika: this kind of technique I already use, for "{ name: John, family: Resig }" you need to split it before on ,
• Kosmetika: but in my case there can be even more complicated techniques like { name: John, email: { $exists: true }}

Answer 2

If you can get '{"name":"John"}' then you can just decode it as JSON.

Answer 3

Working jsFiddle Demo

Your string must be valid JSON format:

var s = '{ "name": "John", "family": "Resig" }';

Then you can parse it with JSON.parse:

var o = JSON.parse(s);

And you can use the object o:

alert(o.name); // John
alert(o.family); // Resig

• Kosmetika: unfortunately I can't be sure that it will be correct JSON, a string could be like this { data: $exists }, seems only spliting & slicing may help
• user1823761: @Kosmetika How are you generating your JSON? All server side languages has ability to generate valid JSON string.
• Kosmetika: it's not a JSON, it's simple string that user puts into shell
• user1823761: @Kosmetika I don't think it's a correct way to do this. Imagine user wants something like this: { "fullname": "Resig, John: jQuery Creator" } (an object with one pair). How this must be input? { fullname: Resig, John: jQuery Creator } (an object with two pairs)?
• Kosmetika: yeah, sounds not ok.. in ideal it can be typed like { fullname: "Resig, John: jQuery Creator" }..