Object to String Conversion Issue in JavaScript

Question

I have a JQuery that records all the immediate parent lists when a child list is clicked.

Example -

- Parent1  
  - Child1
     - GrandChild1
     - Grandchild2
     - Grandchild3
  - Child2
     - Grandchild4
     - Grandchild5

Clicking on Grandchild2 will record Parent1, Child1 and Grandchild2.

I want to use JQuery, JS and Cookies to print a value in another page when something is clicked in this list page. However the following codes doesn't work. Kindly help.

JQUERY and JS Code - (for the list page)

function objToString (obj) {
            var str = '';
            for (var p in obj) {
                if (obj.hasOwnProperty(p)) {
                    str += p + '::' + obj[p] + '\n';
                }
            }
            return str;
        }

        $(document).ready(function() {
            $('li').click(function() {
                var obj = $(this).parents('li').add(this);
                obj.css('color', 'red');
                var data= "data=";
                document.cookie = data+objToString(obj);
            });
        });

PHP Code - (for the page where the list data is to be printed)

echo $_COOKIE['data'];

The PHP Code should print Parent1 Child1 Grandchild2 for the above example. Also all functionalities should be IE 7 compatible. Only problem I face is that objToString doesn't work properly here.

You're defining $obj but sending obj to the objToString method. — Jason P
– Jason P, Commented Dec 28, 2013 at 4:26
@Jason P >> Following your advice it prints now 0::[object HTMLLIElement]. Still not printing the required result. — Rajarshi Sarkar
– Rajarshi Sarkar, Commented Dec 28, 2013 at 4:30
@Markasoftware >> Thanks for your reply. I never heard of JSON.stringify. Can you please elaborate this example with it? — Rajarshi Sarkar
– Rajarshi Sarkar, Commented Dec 28, 2013 at 4:31
JSON is an object stringification system used to turn objects and other variables into strings — markasoftware
– markasoftware, Commented Dec 28, 2013 at 4:34

Bhaskar Melkani · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-28 05:46:23Z

1

Use JSON.stringify instead. This function converts any Object to String, concatinating the keys and values.

Example:-

var obj = {a:"b", f:{c:"d"},e:"e"};
JSON.stringify(obj);

Output:-

"{"a":"b","f":{"c":"d"},"e":"e"}" .

answered Dec 28, 2013 at 5:46

Bhaskar Melkani

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16 Comments

Rajarshi Sarkar Over a year ago

I used document.cookie = data+JSON.stringify(obj); but it says

Uncaught TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON directory.php:76 (anonymous function) directory.php:76 jQuery.event.dispatch jquery-1.9.1.js:3074 elemData.handle

at the Java console. I included the script as <script src="json2.js"></script>

Bhaskar Melkani Over a year ago

This might get some issue with HTML Nodes, like if you are doing some thing like. JSON.stringify($('div')); This will get Circular Referance error.

Rajarshi Sarkar Over a year ago

I have edited the code a bit. I have defined the object as obj now. document.cookie = data+JSON.stringify(obj); still shows no luck. Any guess what to do now?

Bhaskar Melkani Over a year ago

The Circular structure error.. comes.. due to the following reason.. as HTML Nodes have circular references. Since every node has a property 'ownerDocument', which means every node is referring to the document and document node refers to this node via child relation ship. So it islike node->document-> node. This is a very basic case, in case event listeners there can be multiple loops.

Bhaskar Melkani Over a year ago

Simple example of Circular Reference: var a = {}; a.b = a; JSON.stringify(a); This will give the same error as you are getting inyour case.

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