CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregexjson
Vicky Gonsalves
Vicky Gonsalves

Reputation: 11707

How do I replace a double quote inside double quoted string using javascript and regular expressions?

How do I escape a double quote (") inside double quotes using a regular expression for the JSON string below?

[{
     "LDAP_ID":"a",
     "LAC_NO":"1153274",
     "ACTION":"VBE",
     "DATE_OF_ACTION":"06-01-2006 AM 12:00:00",
     "RESPONSE":"DPP",
     "DEF_OBSERV":"M",
     "REMARK":"visited b"         s emp & rcd 1 emi",
     "OPR_ID":"FCTV1",
     "ACTION_TO_BE":"",
     "ACTION_TO_BE_DT":"",
     "AMOUNT_TOBECHG":"",
     "DELEGATED_TO":"",
     "BRANCH_CODE":"100",
     "DISP_DATE_OF_ACTION":"06-JAN-06",
     "DISP_ACTION_TO_BE_DT":"",
     "SRNO":"142871",
     "DELETED_FLAG":"",
     "TIMESTAMP":"10-08-2012 AM 11:38:30",
     "STAMPDATETIME":"2012-08-10 11:38:30"
}]

Key line needing escaped:

"REMARK":"visited b"         s emp & rcd 1 emi",

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2107

Answers (2)

raffazizzi
raffazizzi

Reputation: 695

The only way to fix that invalid JSON within JS with regular expressions is to receive it as string, do the replacement and then re-evaluate it as JSON. This last step can be unsafe. Here is a question with a similar problem: Convert object string to JSON

So I would suggest to fix the JSON before receiving it. Anyway, if you can't, here's a solution with regular expressions.

The regular expression only operates between the delimiters of a value :" and ", to make sure to escape only double quotes within a value (edited).

:\s*"[^"]*"[^"]*"\s*(,|\s*\})

Here's the full code with the replacement (regex edited):

var str = '[{ "LDAP_ID":"a", "LAC_NO":"1153274", "ACTION":"VBE", "DATE_OF_ACTION":"06-01-2006 AM 12:00:00", "RESPONSE":"DPP", "DEF_OBSERV":"M", "REMARK":"visited b" s emp & rcd 1 emi", "OPR_ID":"FCTV1", "ACTION_TO_BE":"", "ACTION_TO_BE_DT":"", "AMOUNT_TOBECHG":"", "DELEGATED_TO":"", "BRANCH_CODE":"100", "DISP_DATE_OF_ACTION":"06-JAN-06", "DISP_ACTION_TO_BE_DT":"", "SRNO":"142871", "DELETED_FLAG":"", "TIMESTAMP":"10-08-2012 AM 11:38:30", "STAMPDATETIME":"2012-08-10 11:38:30" }]'

var j = str.replace(/(:\s*"[^"]*)"([^"]*"\s*(,|\s*\}))/g, '$1\\"$2');

var json = JSON.stringify(eval("(" + j + ")"));

Upvotes: 0

Raffaele
Raffaele

Reputation: 20885

This problem can't be solved with a regular expression. You can even came up with one that works in 99% of the cases, but nothing more.

Invalid JSON is invalid, and must be fixed by a human on the server side. Regex are not intended to solve this kind of problems. You'd better fix it on the server side.

Upvotes: 2

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