CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjsonobject
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Reputation: 4026

JSON objects .. inside JSON objects

so I am new to JSON, and have been experimenting around with some possibilities. One thing I was wondering: Is there a way to place 'JSON object's inside of 'JSON objects'? I want to assume this can be done, and would like it to be possible as it could be very useful, but all attempts at the syntax has failed me. Here is an example of the standard:

var Person = {
    name:  'John', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true,
    siblings: [
        {
            name:  'Andrew', 
            age:   23, 
            alive: true
        },
        {
            name:  'Christine',
            age:   19,
            alive: true
        }
    ]   
}

Now, is there a way to do something like the following?

var Andrew = {
    name:  'Andrew', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true
}

var Person = {
    name:  'John', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true,
    siblings: [
        {
            Andrew
        },
        {
            name:  'Christine',
            age:   19,
            alive: true
        }
    ]    
}

If so, what is the proper way to do this? Or can it simply, not be done?

edit: What I really mean is: Is JSON able to encode objects which have objects inside of them?

Upvotes: 18

Views: 95395

Answers (5)

gilly3
gilly3

Reputation: 91567

Omit the curly braces:

var Person = {
    name:  'John', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true,
    siblings: [
        Andrew,
        {
            name:  'Christine',
            age:   19,
            alive: true
        }
    ]    
}

Andrew is a reference to a JavaScript object. The curly brace notation - { foo: 1 } - is an object literal. To use a variable instead of a literal, you omit the entire literal syntax, including the curly braces.

Note that neither of these is JSON or a "JSON object". JSON is a string that happens to match JavaScript Object literal syntax. Once a JSON string has been parsed, it is a JavaScript object, not a JSON object.

For example, this is valid JavaScript, but not valid JSON:

var Person = {
    name: "John",
    birthDate: new Date(1980, 0, 1),
    speak: function(){ return "hello"; },
    siblings: [
        Andrew,
        Christine
    ];
}

JSON cannot instantiate objects such as new Date(), JSON cannot have a function as a member, and JSON cannot reference external objects such as Andrew or Christine.

Upvotes: 16

Joe
Joe

Reputation: 82634

var Andrew = {
    name:  'Andrew', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true
}

var Person = {
    name:  'John', 
    age:   21, 
    alive: true,
    siblings: [
        Andrew,
        {
            name:  'Christine',
            age:   19,
            alive: true
        }
    ]    
}

Drop the brackets since it is already an object.

Person.siblings[0].name // Andrew

Upvotes: 3

Dave Ward
Dave Ward

Reputation: 60580

You're close. Andrew is already an object, so you don't need to wrap it in the object literal syntax (and you'd need a property name to accompany it as the value if you did that). How about this:

var Andrew = {
  name:  'Andrew', 
  age:   21, 
  alive: true
}

var Person = {
  name:  'John', 
  age:   21, 
  alive: true,
  siblings: [
    Andrew,
    {
        name:  'Christine',
        age:   19,
        alive: true
    }
  ]    
}

Upvotes: 4

Amir Raminfar
Amir Raminfar

Reputation: 34179

You don't need brackets again. You can just put Andrew as one of the array values. 

siblings: [
        Andrew,
    {
        name:  'Christine',
        age:   19,
        alive: true
    }
]

Upvotes: 2

Alex Turpin
Alex Turpin

Reputation: 47776

In pure JSON, you can embed objects in objects allright, just not references of objects.

If you are using JSON in JavaScript, this is doable, albeit you don't need the brackets around it.

Upvotes: 1

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