javascript extract json from string
function extractJSON(str) {
var firstOpen, firstClose, candidate;
firstOpen = str.indexOf('{', firstOpen + 1);
do {
firstClose = str.lastIndexOf('}');
console.log('firstOpen: ' + firstOpen, 'firstClose: ' + firstClose);
if(firstClose <= firstOpen) {
return null;
}
do {
candidate = str.substring(firstOpen, firstClose + 1);
console.log('candidate: ' + candidate);
try {
var res = JSON.parse(candidate);
console.log('...found');
return [res, firstOpen, firstClose + 1];
}
catch(e) {
console.log('...failed');
}
firstClose = str.substr(0, firstClose).lastIndexOf('}');
} while(firstClose > firstOpen);
firstOpen = str.indexOf('{', firstOpen + 1);
} while(firstOpen != -1);
}
var obj = {'foo': 'bar', xxx: '} me[ow]'};
var str = 'blah blah { not {json but here is json: ' + JSON.stringify(obj) + ' and here we have stuff that is } really } not ] json }} at all';
var result = extractJSON(str);
console.log('extracted object:', result[0]);
console.log('expected object :', obj);
console.log('did it work ?', JSON.stringify(result[0]) == JSON.stringify(obj) ? 'yes!' : 'no');
console.log('surrounding str :', str.substr(0, result[1]) + '<JSON>' + str.substr(result[2]));