String with arrays to array

Question

I have that string:

str = "['movies', ['The Wind', [7, 'acters', ['Any', 'Roberto']]],['Abc',['acters',['Max', 'Alex', 0.312, false, true]]]]"

As you noticed the str has numbers and true/false values without quotes.

is there a easy way to convert it in a correct array?

arr = strToArr(str)
arr[1][0][1] // 'Alex'

UPD. And the str has empty elements like [,,,] or like here [,],[,[,],].

UPD2. Empty elements can be everywhere in the string. It's just ordinary array with empty elements.

UPD3. Well. I can use eval(str) and after I can work with it like with array. But is it the only way to do it easy?

• user663031: Where did this string come from?
• user663031: You should see if you can change the API to provide a correct JSON string (with double quotes, not single quotes).

Answer 1

var str = ("['movies', ['The Wind', [7, 'acters', ['Any', 'Roberto']]]," + 
 "['Abc',['acters',['Max', 'Alex', 0.312, false, true]]]]").replace(/'/g, '"');
console.log(JSON.parse(str));

Replace ' with " and parse as json string.

ps: I broke it into two lines just for better readability.

pps: if you have something like [,, ,] or ,, replace .replace part with .replace(/'/g, '"').replace(/([\[,])\s*([\],])/g, '1ドル "" 2ドル');

ppps: ok, this is for your weird case

var str = "['movies', ['The Wind', [7, 'acters', ['Any', 'Roberto']]]," + 
 "['Abc',['acters',['Max', 'Alex', 0.312,, false, true,],[,],[,[,],]]]]";
str = fixJson(str.replace(/'/g, '"'));
console.log(JSON.parse(str));
function fixJson(match, m1, m2, m3) {
 if (m1 && m2)
 match = m1 + '""' + m2 + (m3 ? m3 : '');
 return match.replace(/([\[,])\s*([\],])([\s\]\[,]+)?/g, fixJson); 
}

pps#?: I wrote a symbol by symbol parser, but it is not complete: 1) it does not check the closure, but you can count number of [ and ] 2) ... probably something else ... like it trims all quotes, but can be fixed by modification of /^["'\s]+|["'\s]+$/g to /^\s*'|'\s*$/g, for example.

var str = "['movies', ['The Wind', [7, 'acters', ['Any', 'Roberto']]]," + 
 "['Abc',['acters',['Max', 'Alex', 0.312,, false, true,],[,],[,[,],]]],]";
var result = parse(str, 0);
console.log(result);
function parse(str, start)
{
 var i = start, res = new Array(), buffer = '',
 re = /^\s*'|'\s*$/g, quotes = false;
 while(i < str.length) { // move along the string
 var s = str[i];
 switch(s) { // check the letter
 case "'": // if quote is found, set the flag inside of element
 if (buffer.substr(-1) != '\\') // check for escaping
 quotes = !quotes;
 else
 buffer = buffer.substring(0, buffer.length - 1); // remove /
 buffer += s; 
 break;
 case '[': // opening [ 
 if (!quotes) { // not inside of a string element
 ret = parse(str, i + 1); // create subarray recursively
 i = ret.pos; // get updated position in the string
 buffer = null;
 res.push(ret.ret); // push subarray to results
 } else buffer += s; // add symbol if inside of a string
 break;
 case ']': // closing ]
 if (!quotes) { // not inside of a string
 if (buffer != null) // buffer is not empty
 res.push(buffer.replace(re, "")); // push it to subarray
 return {ret: res, pos: i}; // return subarray, update position
 }
 buffer += s; // if inside of a string - add letter
 break;
 case ',': // comma
 if (!quotes) { // not inside of a string
 if (buffer != null) // buffer is not empty
 res.push(buffer.replace(re, "")); // push it to results
 buffer = ''; // clear buffer
 break;
 }
 default: buffer += s; break; // add current letter to buffer
 }
 i++;
 }
 return res;
}

• ivanesi: the str has empty elements like [,,78,false,,]
• Cheery: @user3331456 replace ,, by ,"",
• ivanesi: it can be for example like here [,],[,[,],]
• ivanesi: thanks, but it is that only some possible cases. I mean that empty elements can be everywhere in the string. It's just ordinary array with empty elements.
• Cheery: @user3331456 try it with your string. it is possible to make parsing symbol by symbol

Answer 2

If you swap your quotes single to double, double to single like this:

var str = '["movies", ["The Wind", [7, "acters", ["Any", "Roberto"]]],["Abc",["acters",["Max", "Alex", 0.312, false, true]]]]'

Then you could use a JSON parse method (JSON.parse in some native implementations)

var arr = JSON.parse(str);
console.log(arr[1][1][0]); //=> 7

• ivanesi: the str may contains an empty elements like [['fd',,],false]