Javascript finding a nested object within a nested object with regex and object property

Question

I'm turning a string into an object, then looping over that object. For some reason, if the string is semi-correctly formatted and I don't do the first two steps (replacing the parentheses with curly brackets) it works fine.

However, the replacement puts single ' instead of " (although it still parses without error). The parse misses putting the second id underneath the employeeType, and mistakenly puts it under employee.

https://codepen.io/MrMooCats/pen/zwpQGa

var str = "(id,created,employee(id,firstname,employeeType(id),lastname),location)";

str = str.replace(/[(]/g, "{"); // Possible problem line?
str = str.replace(/[)]/g, "}"); // Possible problem line?
str = str.replace(/([A-z])\s*{/g, "$1\":{");
str = str.replace(/([A-z])\s*([},])/g, "$1\":null$2");
str = str.replace(/({)/g, "{\"");
str = str.replace(/(,)/g, ",\"");
var objectStr = JSON.parse(str); // Object created, but wrong


var objectOutput = function(obj, counter) {
    for(var i in obj) {
      console.log(Array(counter+1).join("-") + " " + i);
        if(obj.hasOwnProperty(i)){
          if (obj[i] != null) {
            objectOutput(obj[i], counter+1);
          } else {
            counter = 0;
          }
        }
    }
};

objectOutput(objectStr, 0);

Actual output:

" id"

" created"

" employee"

"- id"

" firstname"

" employeeType"

"- id"

" lastname"

" location"

Expected Output

" id"

" created"

" employee"

"- id"

"- firstname"

"- lastname"

"- employeeType"

"-- id"

" location"

Answer 1

To get desired output you need to fix your objectOutput functrion:

  // Works fine if the ( are { instead and remove the first two lines var str = "(id,created,employee(id,firstname,employeeType(id),lastname),location)"; str = str.replace(/[(]/g, "{"); // Possible problem line? str = str.replace(/[)]/g, "}"); // Possible problem line? str = str.replace(/([Az])\\s*{/g, "$1\\":{"); str = str.replace(/([Az])\\s*([},])/g, "$1\\":null$2"); str = str.replace(/({)/g, "{\\""); str = str.replace(/(,)/g, ",\\""); var objectStr = JSON.parse(str); // Object created, but wrong var objectOutput = function(obj, counter) { for (var i in obj) { console.log(Array(counter + 1).join("-") + " " + i); if (obj.hasOwnProperty(i)) { if (obj[i] != null) { objectOutput(obj[i], counter + 1); } } } }; objectOutput(objectStr, 0); 

I would also change regex this way:

  var str = "(id,created,employee(id,firstname,employeeType(id),lastname),location)"; str = str.replace(/\\(/g, "{").replace(/\\)/g, "}"); str = str.replace(/([_a-zA-Z][_a-zA-Z0-9]*)\\s*([,{}])/g, function(m, name, x){ return '"'+name+'":' + (x != '{' ? 'null' : '') + x;}); var objectStr = JSON.parse(str); var objectOutput = function(obj, counter) { for (var i in obj) { console.log(Array(counter + 1).join("-") + " " + i); if (obj.hasOwnProperty(i)) { if (obj[i] != null) { objectOutput(obj[i], counter + 1); } } } }; objectOutput(objectStr, 0);