Recursively (or iteratively) make a nested html table with d3.js?

Question

I have an array of nested JSON structures where they have varying depth and not the same set of keys everywhere:

[
    {
        \"name\":\"bob\",
        \"         


        

Answer 1

A recursive function would probably be good approach. See code below for one possible implementation (assuming your data is stored in jdata). See the comments in the code for some explanation and see this Gist for a live version: http://bl.ocks.org/4085017

d3.select("body").selectAll("table")
    .data([jdata])
  .enter().append("table")
    .call(recurse);

function recurse(sel) {
  // sel is a d3.selection of one or more empty tables
  sel.each(function(d) {
    // d is an array of objects
    var colnames,
        tds,
        table = d3.select(this);

    // obtain column names by gathering unique key names in all 1st level objects
    // following method emulates a set by using the keys of a d3.map()
    colnames = d                                                     // array of objects
        .reduce(function(p,c) { return p.concat(d3.keys(c)); }, [])  // array with all keynames
        .reduce(function(p,c) { return (p.set(c,0), p); }, d3.map()) // map with unique keynames as keys
        .keys();                                                     // array with unique keynames (arb. order)

    // colnames array is in arbitrary order
    // sort colnames here if required

    // create header row using standard 1D data join and enter()
    table.append("thead").append("tr").selectAll("th")
        .data(colnames)
      .enter().append("th")
        .text(function(d) { return d; });

    // create the table cells by using nested 2D data join and enter()
    // see also http://bost.ocks.org/mike/nest/
    tds = table.append("tbody").selectAll("tr")
        .data(d)                            // each row gets one object
      .enter().append("tr").selectAll("td")
        .data(function(d) {                 // each cell gets one value
          return colnames.map(function(k) { // for each colname (i.e. key) find the corresponding value
            return d[k] || "";              // use empty string if key doesn't exist for that object
          });
        })
      .enter().append("td");

    // cell contents depends on the data bound to the cell
    // fill with text if data is not an Array  
    tds.filter(function(d) { return !(d instanceof Array); })
        .text(function(d) { return d; });
    // fill with a new table if data is an Array
    tds.filter(function(d) { return (d instanceof Array); })
        .append("table")
        .call(recurse);
  });    
}