Parsing JSON with backslash node.js

Question

I have this JSON file,

{
  "file_paths": {
    "PROCESS": "C:\incoming",
    "FAILED": "C:\failed"
  }
}

I get an error when I try to access PROCESS or FAILED. The error is SyntaxError: Unexpected token i in JSON. It must be due to backslash. How can I access PROCESS or FAILED without editing the JSON file?

Jesse · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21 00:59:02Z

1

You will need to escape the backslash in your JSON String.

If you are building the JSON yourself, you can escape special characters when you build it. OR if you are not, as a post process once you have the JSON file you could do something like sed over it to replace the backslash with an escaped backslash (obviously not the ideal solution).

answered Mar 21, 2018 at 0:59

Jesse

2,0941 gold badge24 silver badges25 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Subhashi Over a year ago

I cannot actually edit the file and it is created previously.

Jesse Over a year ago

I am not proposing you manually edit the file. I am saying if you are using in a linux environment use the sed utility that parses and transforms text. sed 's/{{find}}/{{replace}}/g' {{filename}}

Jesse Over a year ago

Just to add (which you probably already figured out) sed 's-\\-\\\\-g' {{filename}}

J Livengood · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21 00:55:55Z

1

The reason is because the JSON is not valid do to the \ no being escaped making the reader think the i is trying to be escaped

answered Mar 21, 2018 at 0:55

J Livengood

2,7261 gold badge15 silver badges27 bronze badges

1 Comment

Subhashi Over a year ago

yes. the error occurs due to '\'. Is there any way to read it omitting the '\'?

rickjerrity · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21 00:58:24Z

1

As J Livengood said, you need to escape backslashes when inside a string. Like so:

var obj = {
  "file_paths": {
    "PROCESS": "C:\\incoming",
    "FAILED": "C:\\failed"
  }
}

answered Mar 21, 2018 at 0:58

rickjerrity

8141 gold badge9 silver badges15 bronze badges

3 Comments

Subhashi Over a year ago

but that means I will have to edit the JSON file? Is there a way to do it without editing the file?

rickjerrity Over a year ago

Check Jesse's answer. You'd have to edit the JSON file at some point before parsing it, no way around that. As Jesse mentioned, you'd have to do something like read the JSON file into a temporary file you have read/write access to. Modify any instance of "\" to "\\", then read the temp file you created and dispose of it afterwards

Subhashi Over a year ago

That was a good method. I tried to change the same file and it did not work as recursively it changed '/' with '//' and after a few times ended up with '//////'. Writing it to a different file worked perfectly. Thank you all...

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Parsing JSON with backslash node.js

3 Answers 3

3 Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

3 Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related