parsing text from responseText

**rpjd** · May 1 '07, 10:11 PM

Originally posted by rpjd

I am using this code trying to parse responseText

Code:

document.getElementById('test').innerHTML=http.responseText 

=<span id="test"></span>

but I am getting the this error:
Object doesn't support this property or method. I have tried using both eval() and split() but I have not beed able to parse the string text from responseText.

Any inspired ideas would help.

RPJD

I am having a problem with split() trying to parse responseText which I can view with

Code:

result = http.responseText;
alert(result)

I have 2 variables and 2 arrays so (var var array[] array[][]) being the output.
I was hoping to parse result with

Code:

result  = http.responseText.split("|"); //giving (var | var | array[] | array[][])

but this has no effect. I get the same output as the above alert. I was then hoping to further parse with

Code:

x = result[0];
y= result[1];
a[] = result[2].split(",");
b[] =result[3].split(",");

to no effect as x.length and result.length are the same. Can someone point me in the right direction?

rpjd

**iam_clint** · May 1 '07, 10:48 PM

Code:

result  = http.responseText;
result = result.split("|");

**rpjd** · May 2 '07, 08:38 AM

Originally posted by iam_clint

Code:

result  = http.responseText;
result = result.split("|");

Thanks iam_clint.
Will give it a go

rpjd

**rpjd** · May 2 '07, 08:40 PM

Originally posted by rpjd

Thanks iam_clint.
Will give it a go

rpjd

Both alerts give the same output

Code:

result = responseText;
alert(result);
result.split("|");
alert(result);

**iam_clint** · May 2 '07, 08:58 PM

lets see what result is set to then.

**acoder** · May 3 '07, 10:17 AM

Originally posted by rpjd

Both alerts give the same output

Code:

result = responseText;
alert(result);
result.split("|");
alert(result);

Look at what iam_clint typed:

Code:

result = result.split("|");

Then you have an array with items result[0], result[1], etc.

**rpjd** · May 8 '07, 10:37 PM

Originally posted by acoder

Look at what iam_clint typed:

Code:

result = result.split("|");

Then you have an array with items result[0], result[1], etc.

I tried this method

Code:

result = http.responseText;
result = result.split('|');
numrows = result[0];
alert(numrows);

instead of getting the first element of the array in the alert, i got the whole array i,e, responseText. I'll crack it someday!

rpjd

**pbmods** · May 8 '07, 10:59 PM

What is the value of responseText in this case? If split is giving you bad output, you may have bad input.

**gruvin** · May 9 '07, 02:21 AM

Originally posted by rpjd

I am having a problem with split() trying to parse responseText which I can view with

Code:

result = http.responseText;
alert(result)

Howdy.

Seems to me you would benefit here by using JavaScript's rather cool JSON syntax (JavaScript Object Notation) for your respnseTexts, rather than all this complex split stuff you might be forced to use in a lesser language :P. Here's an example

If you wanted to post a response back containing, say, two strings and two arrays you have a few options. Here are two:

Option 1

Code:

responseText = "{ 
   stringA: 'String One', 
   stringB: 'String Two', 
   arrayA: ['indexA0', 'indexA1'], 
   arrayB: ['indexB0', 'indexB1'] 
}";

(I added newlines just for clarity... you'd need to leave those out if this were real javascript script of course)

So now you can eval that responseText like so:

Code:

var returnObject = eval('('+responseText+')');
var string1 = returnObject.stringA;
var string2 = returnObject.straingB;
var index0ofArrayB = returnObject.arrayB[0];
...etc.

You can iterate over returnObject like this:

Code:

for (var name in returnObject) {
   alert('returnObect element "'+name+'" is a "+ typeof returnObject[name]);
}

Option 2

OR... you can just use arrays with no objects like so:

Code:

responseText = "[  
   'String One', 
   'String Two', 
   [ 'indexA0', 'indexA1'], 
   [ 'indexB0', 'indexB1']
]";

(Again, newlines added for clairty only)

Now you can eval that data the same way as above, but there's aray data and no objects this time:

Code:

var returnObject = eval('('+responseText+')');
var string1 = returnObject[0];
var string2 = returnObject[1];
var index0ofArrayB = returnObject[3][0];
...etc.

JSON uses {...} to denote a named object and [...] to denote an array. You can nest objects inside objects, arrays inside arrays or objects or any which way! Example, an array of objects might look like:

Code:

JSONarrayOfObjects = "[ { one: '1', two: '2' }, "
		  +"{ one: '1a', two: '2a' } ]";
var anArray = eval("("+JSONarrayOfObjects+")");

There's bound to be a good tutorial on JSON somewhere online. No other language I'm aware of has such a powerful feature as this. I write all my Ajax style response servers to return JSON data -- it makes life SO easy.

Good luck!
Gruvin.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't tested the above code -- just typed it up here. There may be minor (though critical :) ) errors.

parsing text from responseText

parsing text from responseText

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