将Node.js对象设置为从文件读取的数据

Question

I want to read data from a file and add it to an Object stored in memory. The data in the file text.txt looks roughly like this:

One: {title: 'One' ,
contributor: 'Fred',
summary: 'blah' ,
comments: 'words' },

Two: {title: 'Two' ,
contributor: 'Chris' ,
summary: 'blah blah i'm a blah' ,
comments: '' },

I'm trying to set it to an empty Object like so:

var fs = require('fs');
var text = Object.create(null);
fs.readFile("./public/text.txt", "utf-8", function(error, data) {
  text = { data };
});

However, when I log text to the console, it comes out looking like this:

{ data: 'One: {title: \'One\' ,\ncontributor: \'Fred\',\nsummary: \'blah\' ,\ncomments: \'words\' },\n    \nTwo: {title: \'Two\' ,\ncontributor: \'Chris\' ,\nsummary: \'blah blah i\'m a blah\' ,\ncomments: \'\' },\n\n' }

Apparently, it's reading data as a key. What I really want, though, is something more like so:

{
  One: {title: 'One' ,
  contributor: 'Fred',
  summary: 'blah' ,
  comments: 'words' },

  Two: {title: 'Two' ,
  contributor: 'Chris' ,
  summary: 'blah blah i'm a blah' ,
  comments: '' },
}

Any advice here would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

If you are using a newer version of Node, then you have support for ES6.

// So your code 
`text = { data }` 

// is actually a shortcut for 
`text = { data: data }`

That's why you end up with an object that has the key data and the value is a string version of what was found in the file. Instead, just use JSON.parse on the data parameter (which is a string) and it'll convert it to an Object, which you can store in text. Like this

var fs = require('fs');
var text = Object.create(null);
fs.readFile("./public/text.txt", "utf-8", function(error, data) {
  text = JSON.parse(data);
});

You'll also need to make the file valid json. Which means keys need quotes around them as do String values.

{
  "One": {
    "title": "One" ,
    "contributor": "Fred",
    "summary": "blah" ,
    "comments": "words"
  },

  "Two": {
    "title": "Two" ,
    "contributor": "Chris" ,
    "summary": "blah blah i'm a blah" ,
    "comments": ""
  }
}

Answer 2

What you are trying to do is use eval , which is the only way if you really don't want to edit the file to be valid JSON or to export an object as @Spidy suggested. Just be sure the file is valid JavaScript, because the example you gave had

summary: 'blah blah i'm a blah'

but you need to escape i'm like i\\'m .

var fs = require('fs');
var text = {};
fs.readFile('./public/text.txt', 'utf-8', function (error, data) {
  eval(`text = {${data}}`);
//eval('text = {' + data + '}');
});

But I wouldn't necessarily recommend that because that allows arbitrary javascript to get executed. Depending on how the data in the file gets there it would be a huge security risk.