How to convert string into 2-dimension array?

Question

In order to convert string into 1-dimensional JavaScript array I could use 'eval()'. But how to convert string into 2-dimensional array?

My string is:

['stage 1', 1, 11, 111],['Stage 2', 2, 22, 222]

Execution "eval(...)" with such parameter creates a 1 array with 4 elements: ['stage', 1, 11, 111]. Instead I would like to have array of 2 elements, where each element in turn is another array of 4 elements.

I believe, I could split original string by ',' into list of substrings and call 'eval' for each of them and combine the result into a 2-dimensional array.

But I believe that more efficient way should already exist. Is there any? If yes, please advise.

Thank you very much in advance!

Just wrap in an outer pair of braces: '[' + string + ']'.

RobG
– RobG

2013-03-25 05:47:03 +00:00
Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 5:47 — RobG
– RobG, Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 5:47

Aadit M Shah · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-25 05:44:58Z

3

Instead of using eval it would be better to use JSON.parse:

var string = '["stage 1", 1, 11, 111],["Stage 2", 2, 22, 222]';
var array2d = JSON.parse("[" + string + "]");
console.log(array2d);

See the demo here: http://jsfiddle.net/y94zz/

answered Mar 25, 2013 at 5:44

Aadit M Shah

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5 Comments

RobG Over a year ago

"Better" is relative, why is it better than eval? A JSON.parse shim will use eval anyway.

spaceman12 Over a year ago

Why would you use eval when a much better method such as JSON.parse already exist? With eval in used, you cannot even minify your code by any standard minifier/compiler!

Aadit M Shah Over a year ago

@RobG - All major browsers now support JSON.parse, there are shims which do not use eval (for example Crockford's own JSON-js - see json_parse.js or json_parse_state.js) and JSON.parse is much safer to use than eval since it won't execute arbitrary code nor modify variables in the calling context.

RobG Over a year ago

@AaditMShah—good to see an explanation. Crockford dislikes eval so much he wrote a parser, good for him. :-)

Budda Over a year ago

Additional thing: in the original source string the quotes for text should be double quotes, not single (as in my case). But solution helped, thanks a lot!

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