I am tying to read a json file using NodeJs

my code is pretty basic,

  var obj = require("./sample.json");
  console.log(obj[0]);

The sample.json file contains a stringified JSON like this,

"[{\"sample\":\"good\",\"val\":76159}]"

However the console.log output is '[' not the first element in the variable. I have tried opening the file in the long way like this as well.

var obj;
fs.readFile('sample.json', 'utf8', function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  obj = JSON.parse(data);
  console.log(obj[0]);
});

But here also the output is '[' why is the json file not properly parsed? How can I fix it?

Thanks in advance.

I am tying to read a json file using NodeJs

my code is pretty basic,

  var obj = require("./sample.json");
  console.log(obj[0]);

The sample.json file contains a stringified JSON like this,

"[{\"sample\":\"good\",\"val\":76159}]"

However the console.log output is '[' not the first element in the variable. I have tried opening the file in the long way like this as well.

var obj;
fs.readFile('sample.json', 'utf8', function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  obj = JSON.parse(data);
  console.log(obj[0]);
});

But here also the output is '[' why is the json file not properly parsed? How can I fix it?

Thanks in advance.

• javascript
• json
• node.js

• 2 Did you try printing the data? – thefourtheye Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 9:58
• 1 jsfiddle/xgfgmx08 if data is what you said, it should work. double check what's inside data – BeNdErR Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 10:00
• @BeNdErR can you try code where it opens a json in a local puter, I guess the problem is the way we open the file because the example works fine, is there an issue in the way we open the json file? – rksh Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 10:06
• 1 @rksh try to console.log(data) as soon as you read it. What's the output? – BeNdErR Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 10:08
• Have you made: var fs = require('fs'); and tested that you get data once you read the file as mented by @BeNdErR ? – Yosvel Quintero Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 10:24

2 Answers 2

Your file should contain:

[{"sample":"good","val":76159}]

If it contains

"[{\"sample\":\"good\",\"val\":76159}]"

Then it is encoded twice. It is still valid JSON because it is a string, but this JSON does not represent the JavaScript Object:

[{
  sample:"good",
  val:76159
}]

But a string with the content [{"sample":"good","val":76159}].

If you add a second parse (the first one is implicitly done by the require):

var obj = JSON.parse(require("./sample.json"));
console.log(obj[0]);

then you will see that the the correct information is logged.
So your initial problem is that you stored the value the wrong way in ./sample.json.

[info.json]

[{
    "name" : "Young",
    "age" : 100,
    "skill" : "js"
}]

[main.js]

var jsonObj = require('./info.json');
console.log(jsonObj[0]);

[result]

{ name: 'Young', age: 100, skill: 'js' }