How to store a JSON string in a JSON object without causing syntax errors?

Question

I have a JSON object, and in the field resource_hours I want to store a JSON string.

{
  "id": 4,
  "resource": 1,
  "resource_hours": "json goes here",
  "start": "2009-10-10",
  "end": "2010-10-10",
  "created_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z",
  "modified_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z"
}

Here is the string/object I want to store:

{
  "winner": "john",
  "loser": "not john"
}

I tried this:

"resource_hours": "{"winner":"john","loser":"not john"}"

but obviously that raised an error due to the overlapping double quotes.

I also tried using \ to escape the quotes like so:

"resource_hours": "{\"winner\":\"john\",\"loser\":\"not john\"}"

This worked (no error was raised), but is it still a JSON string/object? Can it still be parsed as a JSON object if pulled from a database using an API?

var obj = JSON.parse(<yourstring>) and then obj.resource_hours = <value> — Denny
– Denny, Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 13:50

Jeril · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-01 13:54:12Z

This will work for you using Python:

>>> import json
>>> j = {
... "id": 4,
... "resource": 1,
... "resource_hours": "json goes here",
... "start": "2009-10-10",
... "end": "2010-10-10",
... "created_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z",
... "modified_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z"
... }
>>> j
{'id': 4, 'resource': 1, 'resource_hours': 'json goes here', 'start': '2009-10-10', 'end': '2010-10-10', 'created_at': '
2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z', 'modified_at': '2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z'}

>>> # converting your data to json
>>> act_json = json.dumps(j)
>>> act_json
'{"id": 4, "resource": 1, "resource_hours": "json goes here", "start": "2009-10-10", "end": "2010-10-10", "created_at":
"2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z", "modified_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z"}'

>>> # value that needs to be added
>>> val_to_store = {
... "winner": "john",
... "loser": "not john"
... }

>>> # getting the data and converting it to dictionary
>>> j = json.loads(act_json)

>>> # assigning the values
>>> j['resource_hours'] = val_to_store
>>> j
{'id': 4, 'resource': 1, 'resource_hours': {'winner': 'john', 'loser': 'not john'}, 'start': '2009-10-10', 'end': '2010-
10-10', 'created_at': '2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z', 'modified_at': '2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z'}

>>> # converting back to json, if needed
>>> to_json = json.dumps(j)
>>> to_json
'{"id": 4, "resource": 1, "resource_hours": {"winner": "john", "loser": "not john"}, "start": "2009-10-10", "end": "2010
-10-10", "created_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z", "modified_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z"}'

Happy coding !!!

muratgozel · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-01 13:56:38Z

1

JSON.stringify method allows you to convert object into a string:

const objectWillBeStoredInJson = {
  "winner": "john",
  "loser": "not john"
}

const object = {
  "id": 4,
  "resource": 1,
  "resource_hours": JSON.stringify(objectWillBeStoredInJson),
  "start": "2009-10-10",
  "end": "2010-10-10",
  "created_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z",
  "modified_at": "2017-06-01T13:23:06.103867Z"
}

Now, object.resource_hours has a string that refers to objectWillBeStoredInJson when parsed.

You can use JSON.parse when you want to access it:

const objectWillBeStoredInJson = JSON.parse(object.resource_hours)

answered Jun 1, 2017 at 13:56

muratgozel

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1 Comment

Logicman Over a year ago

Thank you for the Javascript solution!

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