Trying to do JSON.parse but it doesnt like what i am doing with a returned string from my server

Question

I was trying to return a string from my server which would be parsed into a javascript object. I keep getting an error though when it comes to the parsing process. I didnt know why. Maybe you know something that i do not.

My string looks like this:

{{"fname":"bob","lname":"jones"},{...}}

What i was trying to do is something like

var item = JSON.parse(myString);

It should be making item, an array of names so i could do something like:

for(var i = 0; i < item.length; i++){
    alert(item[i].fname + " " + item[i].lname);
}

Is there something i am doing wrong? The above was a sample, but below is actually code snippet:

while (reader.Read())
{
    if (reader["rt_id"] != DBNull.Value && reader["rt_name"] != DBNull.Value)
    {
          t = @"{""pValue"":""{ReportType},"+reader["rt_id"]+@""",""pText"":"""+reader["rt_name"]+@"""}";
          returnContentsArray.Add(t);
    }
}
returnContents = "{" + String.Join(",",returnContentsArray.ToArray()) + "}";
return returnContents;

On Client:

var item = JSON.parse(result); 

Answer 1

That string is not valid JSON. {} represents an object, which needs to have keys. It seems you want an array, use [] instead.

returnContents = "[" + String.Join(",",returnContentsArray.ToArray()) + "]";

Answer 2

You need to use correct JSON format. It looks like the format you should be using is

[{"fname":"bob","lname":"jones"},{...}]

Which would return an array of objects. Just make user you can validate the JSON in JSONLint of similar before trying to change up your javascript code.