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Gaute Meek Olsen
Gaute Meek Olsen

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at gaute.dev

How to get JSON.stringify formatted

#todayilearned #javascript

Today I learned how to get the JSON stringified string to be human-readable, which could be nice when saving the data to a file, with JSON.stringify(value, null, 2).

const characters = [
  {
    name: 'Mario',
    color: 'red'
  },
  {
    name: 'Luigi',
    color: 'green'
  }
];

const oneLine = JSON.stringify(characters) ;
const readable = JSON.stringify(characters, null, 2);

console.log(oneLine);
/* "[{"name":"Mario","color":"red"},{"name":"Luigi","color":"green"}]" */

console.log(readable);
/*
"[
  {
    "name": "Mario",
    "color": "red"
  },
  {
    "name": "Luigi",
    "color": "green"
  }
]"
*/
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See how adding 2 as the third parameter helped us. Especially if the list would have been larger. The number 2 is the number of spaces you want. For tab, you can use JSON.stringify(characters, null, '\t').

Top comments (3)

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vishnubaliga profile image
Vishnu Baliga •

Good one, what is the second argument supposed to be?

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gautemeekolsen profile image
Gaute Meek Olsen •

It's a replacer parameter that could be useful in certain scenarios. It accepts either an array with the properties that should be included or a function where you can change the behavior as you like.

const characters = [
  {
    name: 'Mario',
    color: 'red',
    age: 100
  },
  {
    name: 'Luigi',
    color: 'green',
    age: 95
  }
];

const nameAndAge = JSON.stringify(characters, ['name', 'age'], 2);
console.log(nameAndAge);
/*
"[
  {
    "name": "Mario",
    "age": 100
  },
  {
    "name": "Luigi",
    "age": 95
  }
]"
*/

const darkify = (key, value) => {
  if(key === 'color'){
    return 'dark' + value;
  }
  return value;
}
const darkCharacters = JSON.stringify(characters, darkify, 2);
console.log(darkCharacters);
/*
"[
  {
    "name": "Mario",
    "color": "darkred",
    "age": 100
  },
  {
    "name": "Luigi",
    "color": "darkgreen",
    "age": 95
  }
]"
*/
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vishnubaliga profile image
Vishnu Baliga •

That's so cool! TY.
(Suggestion: you could have mentioned about the second-argument in the blog as well.)

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