Can someone pleas explain to me why json which contains a string with double quotes will break $.parseJSON?

This works:

[{"type":"message","content":{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321722536", "text":"asdasdasd"}}]

This also works:

[{"type":"message","content":{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723267", "text":"""}}]

However this will cause $.jsonParse to not return anything (I am assuming becuase it is a malformed json string:

[{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723278", "text":""""}}]

Can someone pleas explain to me why json which contains a string with double quotes will break $.parseJSON?

This works:

[{"type":"message","content":{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321722536", "text":"asdasdasd"}}]

This also works:

[{"type":"message","content":{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723267", "text":"""}}]

However this will cause $.jsonParse to not return anything (I am assuming becuase it is a malformed json string:

[{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723278", "text":""""}}]

• javascript
• jquery
• json

• Please post an example of the JSON that is breaking the parser. – Scott A Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 17:24
• We need more information to give a meaningful answer. Nobody here can mind-read. You may want to look into the JSON specification (json) though; JSON itself is fairly straightforward. – tdammers Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 17:25
• Can you provide an example please? – Shaun Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 17:25
• Sorry to all, I accidentally pressed enter when making my question (whoops) and hurried to make a semi acceptable one so I could edit it to the full question. my bad – Tomas Reimers Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 17:27
• I had the same issue validation shows NO error so i think its problem with jquery 1.7. For me solution whose remove switch: JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE in PHP json_encode( – user956584 Commented Aug 13, 2012 at 19:47

5 Answers 5

You have an extra } at the end.

}}]

You should run troublesome JSON markup through http://jsonlint./

Parse error on line 6:
..."""    }}]
---------------------^
Expecting ',', ']'

It's not the " or " but the extraenous } you have:

[{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723278", "text":""""}}]
                                                              ^

It crashes because of the double }.

>>> $.parseJSON('[{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723278", "text":""""}}]')
SyntaxError: JSON.parse: expected ',' or ']' after array element
(function(a,b){function cy(a){return f...h]&&f.event.trigger(c,d,b.handle.elem 

But this works:

>>> $.parseJSON('[{"user":"tomasa", "time":"1321723278", "text":""""}]')
[Object { user="tomasa", time="1321723278", text=""""}]

$.parseJSON is looking for the name of the object in double quotes and the value of that object in single quotes. Is this what you are asking?

Because the JSON specification specifically states that string elements are defined as:

string
  ""
  " chars "

In other words, string values must be surrounded by double quotes in order to be valid JSON.

Edited to add:

My answer above is correct for the original question as it was posted a few seconds ago, which was basically "why does jQuery.parseJSON fail when double quotes aren't used", but then the OP modified the question to include an example that demonstrates his/her actually problem, which has nothing to do with the quotes at all.