jQuery.getJSON and jQuery.parseJSON return [object Object]?

Question

EDIT: I\'ve gotten the \"famous question\" badge with this question, so I figured I\'d come back to it and stick what happened to me right at the very tippy

Answer 1

it wants a string

 var obj = $.parseJSON(JSON.stringify(data));

Answer 2

try sending that object to console.log. You'll get a clearer picture what does it contain.

Also, put dataType: 'json' and remove parseJSON because it's all the same.

Answer 3

The alert() function can only display a string of text. As its only parameter it takes a string or an object. The object will however be converted into a string that can be displayed.

When fetching JSON through jQuery, the $.ajax() method will automatically parse the JSON and turn it into a JavaScript object for you. Your data variable is therefor a JavaScript object, and not a JSON string as one might expect.

Since alert() only can display strings, when trying to alert your data object, your object will be turned into its string representation. The string representation of a JavaScript object is [object Object].

For debug-purposes you can use console.log(data) instead. You can then inspect the object and its content through the console in your browsers developer tools.

function init2() {
    jQuery.ajax({
        url: "/Mobile_ReportingChain.cfm",
        type: "POST",
        dataType: "json",
        async: false,
        success: function (data) {
            console.log(data);
        }
    });
}

If you for some reason still want to alert the JSON-data, then you would have to turn your data object back into a JSON-string. To do that you can make use of JSON.stringify:

alert(JSON.stringify(data));

Answer 4

[object Object] is the string representation of a javascript object.

Try accessing properties of the object.

alert(data.COLUMNS[0]);

Answer 5

This is how it's supposed to work. Your JSON becomes a javascript object. You can then manipulate that object as a regular javascript object.

data.COLUMNS for instance should return an array.

Answer 6

jQuery.parseJSON will convert the json string into json object so alert(obj) will show you [object Object] since it is an object.

If you want to see what obj contains then use console.log(obj) and then check console log message.