String to Object

[mikewgd]

Is it possible or is there something already out there that can turn a string into an object?

Lets say for example, you have this string: "content:uniqueDiv|width:300|height:150"

Now is it possible to create a function or something to dynamically create an object for you using this string. So the text in bold is the property and the text in italics is the property's value.

So using this example the object you would return is:
{content: 'uniqueDiv', width: 300, height: 150}

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks!

[svidgen]

You'll have more luck finding a routine that can serialize/deserialize objects safely if you use a well-established format like JSON or XML.

But, for the format you've provided, here's a really simple approach, which assumes the keys and values are URI encoded:

var deserialize = function(s) {
  var rv = {};
  var pairs = s.split("|");
  for (var i in pairs) {
    var p = pairs[i].split(":");
    if (p.length == 2) {
      var k = decodeURIComponent(p[0]);
      var v = decodeURIComponent(p[1]);
      rv[k] = v;
    }
  }
  return rv;
} // deserialize() 

Using the above method, if a key is specified twice, the 2nd value takes precedence. And nested objects are not supported.

[xelawho]

will turn the numbers into strings, but you can deal with that later if need be:

<script type="text/javascript">
str="content:uniqueDiv|width:300|height:150"
atts=str.split("|")
myObj={}
for (var i = 0; i < atts.length; i++) {
myObj[atts[i].split(":")[0]]=atts[i].split(":")[1];
}

</script>

[xelawho]

svidgen: seems to me that yours works better with this line instead:

var p = pairs[i].split(":");

[svidgen]

svidgen: seems to me that yours works better with this line instead:

var p = pairs[i].split(":");

Good catch. I've fixed it above.

[mikewgd]

Wow! Thank you for all the responses. I was kind of stumped by this. Thanks for all your help! I really really appreciate it.