How to convert JavaScript object into LITERAL string?

Question

If I have the object literal:

{a: "hello"}

Is there a Javascript function to convert this object into a literal string, so that the output would be the literal syntax:

'{a: "hello"}'

With JSON.stringify the output would be

'{"a": "hello"}'

Answer 1

JavaScript has no built-in functions that will convert an object to a string representation of it which either:

• Uses identifiers instead of strings for property names
• Represents the original syntax used to create the object

You could write your own function for the former (at least when the property name can be represented as a literal) but the latter is impossible as JavaScript stores no information about the source code used to create the object in the first place.

Answer 2

You can do it with JSON.stringify and then with String.replace like follows:

 var jsObj = { abc: "hello", bca: "allo", cab: "dd:cc", d: ["hello", "llo", "dd:cc"], e: {abc: "hello", bca: "allo", cab: "dd:cc"} }; function format(obj) { var str = JSON.stringify(obj, 0, 4), arr = str.match(/".*?":/g); for(var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) str = str.replace(arr[i], arr[i].replace(/"/g,'')); return str; } console.log(format(jsObj)); 

Answer 3

It does convert it to the literal syntax. You are able to create objects with multiple forms of syntax. Both of the following object declarations are valid:

var a = {a: "a"}
var b = {"b": "b"}

If you want to remove the "" around the key you should be able to match them with the following regex /\\"(.*?)\\":/g and replace them with something like this:

function reformat(str) {
    var myRegexp = /\"(.*?)\":/g;
    match = myRegexp.exec(str);
    while (match != null) {
        str = str.replace(match[0], match[1] + ":");
        match = myRegexp.exec(str);
    }

    return str;
}

Hope that helps :)

Answer 4

Ok just for fun...roll your own?

 const stringify = (obj) => { // Iterate over keys, reducing to a string let str = Object.keys(obj).reduce((acc, cur) => { let next = `${cur}: "${obj[cur]}"`; return acc ? `${acc}, ${next}` : `{${next}`; }, ''); // Return, appending final '}' return `${str}}`; } document.write(stringify({ foo:1, bar:'seat' })); 

That said, your exact requirements aren't clear so I'm not sure this will meet them. But it might be a starting point if there's no native solution that works.