In my React/Redux app, I make a call to my backend API which returns a text response. I then use the following line to retrieve the text. The issue I'm seeing is that my code seems to put two sets of quotes around the text I receive.

So, my API returns Hello World! but in the code below it bees ""Hello World!""

My API is really returning a string so there will always be a set of quotes around the text such as "Hello World!" which is perfectly fine. I just don't understand why I'm getting two sets of quotes.

Any idea why?

export const callApi = (request) => {
    return (dispatch) => fetch('/api/getsometext', fetchOptionsPost(request))
        .then((response) => {
            if(!response.ok) {
                // Request failed
                dispatch(setBadRequest(true))
            } else {
                const myText = response.text() // This is where I'm getting double quotes
                .then((myText) => dispatch(setMyText(myText)))
            }
        })
}

In my React/Redux app, I make a call to my backend API which returns a text response. I then use the following line to retrieve the text. The issue I'm seeing is that my code seems to put two sets of quotes around the text I receive.

So, my API returns Hello World! but in the code below it bees ""Hello World!""

My API is really returning a string so there will always be a set of quotes around the text such as "Hello World!" which is perfectly fine. I just don't understand why I'm getting two sets of quotes.

Any idea why?

export const callApi = (request) => {
    return (dispatch) => fetch('/api/getsometext', fetchOptionsPost(request))
        .then((response) => {
            if(!response.ok) {
                // Request failed
                dispatch(setBadRequest(true))
            } else {
                const myText = response.text() // This is where I'm getting double quotes
                .then((myText) => dispatch(setMyText(myText)))
            }
        })
}

• javascript
• redux

• I first noticed them in the UI of my app. I then started investigating it and looks like they first appear where I marked it in my code in original post. I also checked to see if my API was sending it like that and confirmed that the API is just returning simple text with no extra quotes around it. – Sam Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 2:45
• My API is really returning a string so there will always be a set of quotes around the text such as "Hello World!" Response.text() should not add these quotes at all. – Kaiido Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 2:47
• That's what I'm saying. When you inspect some text, you always see it in quotes which is to indicate that it's a string value. In reality, there is no double quotes. It's just represented that way. When I inspect the text I get from API i.e. response.text() line, that's where I see the two sets of double quotes. In other words, response.text() seems to be wrapping the text in quotes. When my app displays the text to the user, the final result is "Hello World!" just one set of double quotes. So, something is wrapping the text received from the API in double quotes. – Sam Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 2:51
• And what do you have in your network panel's Response tab ? Also, what result do you get if you do response.blob().then(b=>{reader=new FileReader(); reader.onload = e=> dispatch(setMyText(reader.result); reader.readAsText(b);})? And are you sure it's not in the setMyText function taht this wrapping happens? Can you reproduce it in many browsers or just one? Dos it also happen with xhr? – Kaiido Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 2:54
• 2 which is normal. No, in this panel, you should see the raw response without quotes. That means that your server sends the data with these quotes, probably because it thinks it should send it as JSON. So either reconfigure your API so it doesn't try to send it as JSON, either simply use Response.JSON() so that your client-side parses it correctly. – Kaiido Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 3:12

1 Answer 1

Simply quoting @Kaiido's hint as an answer so it does not get lost in the ments:

Your server sends the data with these quotes, probably because it thinks it should send it as JSON. So either reconfigure your API so it doesn't try to send it as JSON, either simply use Response.JSON() so that your client-side parses it correctly.