Strange character added when writing to file

Question

I am writing the following line to the end of an html file as javascript. For some reason after the place variable is written to the file, a new line or some similar character is added. I wouldnt mind this because I won't be looking through the written script, but chrome is telling me its an illegal character.

Code to write to html:

map_html.write(
    "geocoder.geocode( { 'address': '" + place + "'}, function(results, status) {\n\
      var marker = new google.maps.Marker();\n\
      marker.setPosition(results[0].geometry.location);\n\
      marker.setMap(map);\n\
      bounds.extend(marker.position);\n\
    });\n"
)

Output:

geocoder.geocode( { 'address': 'Brooklyn, NY
'}, function(results, status) {
          var marker = new google.maps.Marker();
          marker.setPosition(results[0].geometry.location);
          marker.setMap(map);
          bounds.extend(marker.position);
        });

Answer 1

Replace your code with:

var geo_json = JSON.stringify({ 'address': place});
map_html.write(
    "geocoder.geocode(" + geo_json + ", function(results, status) {\n\
      var marker = new google.maps.Marker();\n\
      marker.setPosition(results[0].geometry.location);\n\
      marker.setMap(map);\n\
      bounds.extend(marker.position);\n\
    });\n"
)

This will sidestep the issue and will allow you to see what the stringify ed json would look like. It's generally a bad idea to write your own json. Let javascript generate json, it's good at that.

If that still causes pain, then try var geo_json = JSON.stringify({ 'address': place.trim()}); which will strip whitespace from the ends of the place string.

If that still causes pain, then try a regex to validate the place input. Something like [A-Za-z_ ,]+

---

EDIT

Oh, crap, I mixed up javascript and python here.

import json

geo_json = json.dumps({ 'address': place})
map_html.write(
    "geocoder.geocode(" + geo_json + ", function(results, status) {\n\
      var marker = new google.maps.Marker();\n\
      marker.setPosition(results[0].geometry.location);\n\
      marker.setMap(map);\n\
      bounds.extend(marker.position);\n\
    });\n"
)

Answer 2

How about trying a multiline string?

map_html.write(
    "geocoder.geocode( { 'address': " + place + "}, function(results, status) {" + """
        var marker = new google.maps.Marker();
        marker.setPosition(results[0].geometry.location);
        marker.setMap(map);
        bounds.extend(marker.position);
    });
    """
)