Parse data with no header

SimonKing · August 19

I have an API which pulls in data

{"name":["details"],"name":["details"],"name":["details"],"name":["details"],..

If I MagicParse this I just get ONE long row with these details.

What I am after is 2 columns of Name and Details. I have parsed the data and added the columns titles but how do I reference the data?

for(var i=0 ; i<jsonRes.length ; i++) {
  datagrid.addCell(jsonRes[i].?);
  datagrid.addCell(jsonRes[i].?);
  datagrid.endRow();
}

ArborRose · August 19

Can you reformat the JSON incoming, before you handle it?

Loop through each object in the array, extracting the details from the "name" key and creating a new object with the key "details" associated with the value.

// Simulating the incoming invalid JSON (you receive this from the API)

var invalidJson = [

  { "name": ["details1"] },

  { "name": ["details2"] },

  { "name": ["details3"] },

  { "name": ["details4"] }

];



// Initialize an array to store the reformatted data

var validJsonArray = [];



// Loop through each entry and reformat it

for (var i = 0; i < invalidJson.length; i++) {

  validJsonArray.push({

    "name": "name", // This assumes "name" is constant

    "details": invalidJson[i].name[0] // Extracting the detail from each object

  });

}



// The validJsonArray now contains the reformatted data

console.log(validJsonArray);

After reformatting:
[
{ "name": "name", "details": "details1" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details2" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details3" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details4" }
]

for (var i = 0; i < validJsonArray.length; i++) {

  datagrid.addCell(validJsonArray[i].name); // Adds "name" to the first column

  datagrid.addCell(validJsonArray[i].details); // Adds the corresponding details to the second column

  datagrid.endRow(); // End the current row

}

If you regularly receive this malformed JSON from the API, you can wrap the reformatting code in a function and call it each time you receive the data.

function reformatJsonData(invalidJson) {

  var validJsonArray = [];


  for (var i = 0; i < invalidJson.length; i++) {

    validJsonArray.push({

      "name": "name",

      "details": invalidJson[i].name[0]

    });

  }


  return validJsonArray;

}



// Usage

var reformattedData = reformatJsonData(invalidJson);


// Process the reformatted data as needed

ArborRose · August 19

The issue in your JSON code seems to be the repeated "name" keys without nesting. To properly reference the data in your loop, you should ensure that each entry in the array is an object with distinct keys for "name" and "details".

JSON

[

  {"name": "details1", "detail": "detail1"},

  {"name": "details2", "detail": "detail2"},

  {"name": "details3", "detail": "detail3"}

]

for(var i = 0; i < jsonRes.length; i++) {

  datagrid.addCell(jsonRes[i].name); 

  datagrid.addCell(jsonRes[i].detail); 

  datagrid.endRow(); 

}

SimonKing · August 19

Hi, Yes that's the problem, without any key I cannot reference the data. This is data coming from a web service so I have no control over the format.

ArborRose · August 19

Given a structure:

{
"name": ["details1"],
"name": ["details2"],
"name": ["details3"],
"name": ["details4"]
}

This JSON structure is not valid because JSON keys must be unique within the same object.

If your data is like this:

[
{"name": "details1"},
{"name": "details2"},
{"name": "details3"},
{"name": "details4"}
]

You can probably loop through each object and extract the name value as shown before.

var jsonRes = {

  "name": ["details1", "details2", "details3", "details4"]

};


for (var i = 0; i < jsonRes.name.length; i++) {

  datagrid.addCell("name"); // Add the name or label (if it's the same for all)

  datagrid.addCell(jsonRes.name[i]); // Add the corresponding detail value

  datagrid.endRow();

}

SimonKing · August 19

Unfortunately that is not how my data is though :(

ArborRose · August 19

That's too bad. And you can't go back to the source of the API code and talk to them about it?

SimonKing · August 19

Unfortunately not, its a global service used by 1000's of customers 'as is'.

ArborRose · August 19

Can you reformat the JSON incoming, before you handle it?

Loop through each object in the array, extracting the details from the "name" key and creating a new object with the key "details" associated with the value.

// Simulating the incoming invalid JSON (you receive this from the API)

var invalidJson = [

  { "name": ["details1"] },

  { "name": ["details2"] },

  { "name": ["details3"] },

  { "name": ["details4"] }

];



// Initialize an array to store the reformatted data

var validJsonArray = [];



// Loop through each entry and reformat it

for (var i = 0; i < invalidJson.length; i++) {

  validJsonArray.push({

    "name": "name", // This assumes "name" is constant

    "details": invalidJson[i].name[0] // Extracting the detail from each object

  });

}



// The validJsonArray now contains the reformatted data

console.log(validJsonArray);

After reformatting:
[
{ "name": "name", "details": "details1" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details2" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details3" },
{ "name": "name", "details": "details4" }
]

for (var i = 0; i < validJsonArray.length; i++) {

  datagrid.addCell(validJsonArray[i].name); // Adds "name" to the first column

  datagrid.addCell(validJsonArray[i].details); // Adds the corresponding details to the second column

  datagrid.endRow(); // End the current row

}

If you regularly receive this malformed JSON from the API, you can wrap the reformatting code in a function and call it each time you receive the data.

function reformatJsonData(invalidJson) {

  var validJsonArray = [];


  for (var i = 0; i < invalidJson.length; i++) {

    validJsonArray.push({

      "name": "name",

      "details": invalidJson[i].name[0]

    });

  }


  return validJsonArray;

}



// Usage

var reformattedData = reformatJsonData(invalidJson);


// Process the reformatted data as needed

Parse data with no header

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