CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#regexjson
gooddadmike
gooddadmike

Reputation: 2369

Remove square brackets in JSON data except between qoutes

I am using the following code adapted from this so answer

// remove outer bracket
JSONdata = JSONdata.Trim().Trim('[', ']'); 

// remove white space and line breaks except between double qoutes
JSONdata = Regex.Replace(JSONdata.Trim('"').Replace("\\\"", "\""), "(\"(?:[^\"\\\\]|\\\\.)*\")|\\s+", "$1"); 

// add back bracket
JSONdata = "[" + JSONdata + "]";

Then I get data like this:

[
 [
   {"OptionChoice":14151,"OptionText":"Television"},
   {"OptionChoice":14755,"OptionText":"Test[ something ]"}
 ]
 ,{"OptionChoice":361,"OptionText":"Yes"}
]

OR Minified (as it is in my real code)

[[{"OptionChoice":14151,"OptionText":"Television"},{"OptionChoice":14755,"OptionText":"Test[ something ]"}],{"OptionChoice":361,"OptionText":"Yes"}]

Whitespace and line breaks added back for example only. Real data has no whitespace or line breaks

I would like to be able to get keep the outer brackets but remove the set of inner brackets that is not in double quotes.

EDIT: Expected output 

[
  {"OptionChoice":14151,"OptionText":"Television"},
  {"OptionChoice":14755,"OptionText":"Test[ something ]"},    
  {"OptionChoice":361,"OptionText":"Yes"}
]

Minified:

[{"OptionChoice":14151,"OptionText":"Television"},{"OptionChoice":14755,"OptionText":"Test[ something ]"},{"OptionChoice":361,"OptionText":"Yes"}]

I must confess that I don't fully understand the regexp that I have used.

… and now I have two problems.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3106

Answers (1)

vks
vks

Reputation: 67968

(?!^)\[(?=(?:[^"]*"[^"]*")*[^"]*$)|\](?!$)(?=(?:[^"]*"[^"]*")*[^"]*$)

Try this.See demo.Replace by ``.Do not forget the flags.

http://regex101.com/r/zR2tR4/25

Upvotes: 1

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