Build nested JSON from string of nested keys [duplicate]

Answer 1

You could split the path and make a check if the following element exist. If not assign an object to the new property.

Return then the value of the property.

At the end assign the value.

function setValue(object, path, value) {
    path = path.replace(/[\[]/gm, '.').replace(/[\]]/gm, ''); //to accept [index]
    var keys = path.split('.'),
        last = keys.pop();

    keys.reduce(function (o, k) { return o[k] = o[k] || {}; }, object)[last] = value;
}

var data = {};

setValue(data, 'location.degree.text', 'sometexthere');
console.log(data);

Answer 2

// result container
var res = {};

// input data
var inp = [
    'data.location.degree.text=sometexthere',
    'data.otherLocation.degree.otherText=foo',
    'data.location.degree.otherText=bar',
    'we.can.handle.values.that.are_undefined=',
    'we.can.handle.values.that.contain_equals_signs=yes=we=can'
];

// recursive function
var pathToObject = function(resultReference, path)
{
    // split path on dots
    // e.g. data.location.degree.text=sometexthere
    // -> ["data", "location", "degree", "text=sometexthere"]
    var splitPathParts = path.split('.');

    // if there is only one part, we're at the end of our path expression
    // e.g. ["text=sometexthere"]
    if (splitPathParts.length === 1){
        // split "text=sometexthere" into ["text", "sometexthere"]
        var keyAndValue = splitPathParts[0].split('=');

        // set foo = bar on our result object reference
        resultReference[keyAndValue.shift()] = keyAndValue.join('=');
        return;
    }
  
    // the first element of the split array is our current key
    // e.g. for ["data", "location", "degree", "text=sometexthere"],
    // the currentKey would be "data";
    var currentKey = splitPathParts.shift();

    // if our object does not yet contain the current key, set it to an empty object
    resultReference[currentKey] || (resultReference[currentKey] = {});
    
    // recursively call ourselves, passing in
    // the nested scope and the rest of the path.
    // e.g. { data : {} } and 'location.degree.text=sometexthere'
    pathToObject(resultReference[currentKey], splitPathParts.join('.'));
}

for (var i = 0; i < inp.length; i++)
{
    pathToObject(res, inp[i]);
}
console.log(res);

ES6 syntax makes things slightly more terse:

'use strict';

const pathToObject = (resultReference, path) => {
  let [currentKey, ...restOfPath] = path.split('.');
  
  if (restOfPath.length === 0) {
    let [k, ...v] = currentKey.split('=');
    resultReference[k] = v.join('=');
    return;
  }

  resultReference[currentKey] || (resultReference[currentKey] = {});
  pathToObject(resultReference[currentKey], restOfPath.join('.'));
}

let res = {};

[
  'data.location.degree.text=sometexthere',
  'data.otherLocation.degree.otherText=foo',
  'data.location.degree.otherText=bar',
  'we.can.handle.values.that.are_undefined=',
  'we.can.handle.values.that.contain_equals_signs=yes=we=can'
].forEach(x => pathToObject(res, x));

console.log(res);