How to convert string field array back into an array with javascript

Anibal Cardozo 0
Viewed 69

Im receiving from an API something like this

"['item1', 'item2', 'item3']"

so even though it looks like an array is actually a string. I want to convert that to an array again so I did this.

 let pseudoArray = "['item1', 'item2', 'item3']";
 let actualArray = pseudoArray.slice(1, -1).split(', ');

And it kinda works I just remove the brackets at the beginning and the end with slice() and use split to separate by the comma into an actual array.

But I feel this is not the best way to do it, is there a better, cleaner way to parse this string into an array?

arrays javascript
4 Answers

You could try matching the string patterns directly, like this:

var items = "['item1', 'item2', 'item3']";
const array = items.match(/(?<=')[^,].*?(?=')/g);
console.log(array)

Eric Alain0

I think the better approach would be replace all single quote with double quotes.

var items = "['item1', 'item2', 'item3']";
items = items.replace(/'/g, '"') //replacing all ' with "
console.log(JSON.parse(items))

Hope it helps!

Mohammed Jhosawa0

Just invert the characters ' and " to get the correct JSON string:

const str = "['item1', 'item2', 'item3']";

const mapping = {"'": '"', '"': "'"};
const jsonStr = str.replaceAll(/[\'\"]/g, (e) => mapping[e]);
const arr = JSON.parse(jsonStr);

console.log(arr);
.as-console-wrapper { max-height: 100% !important; top: 0 }

A1exandr Belan0

Best way is to first convert this normal string into a JSON string by replacing single quotes (') with double quotes (") and then convert that JSON string into JSON object by using JSON.parse() method.

Live Demo :

let str = "['item1', 'item2', 'item3']";
str = str.replace(/'/g, '"');
console.log(JSON.parse(str));

Rohìt Jíndal0
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