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up vote -2 down vote favorite

I have the following code which is generated in PHP:

<div id='container1' data-history="[["test", "test title", "", []]]">

I wish to have this accessible in javascript but when I use console.log(history[0]) it outputs '[' so its treating the array as a string.

Is there a way to have it so that javascript can read it as an array?

My PHP code is as follows (i removed the slashes and '' around the array)

echo '<div id="container1" data-history=[[0]["test", "test title", "", []]] data-current-url="'.$url.'">';
share|improve this question
    
how are you doing echo for data-history attribute value from php? –  Ravi Dhoriya ツ Apr 18 '14 at 7:29
    
Yes I am using echo from PHP –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 7:30
    
echo is fine, but how are you doing that for array? plz provide php code –  Ravi Dhoriya ツ Apr 18 '14 at 7:31
    
check dis, for that you need to make your array valid json, stackoverflow.com/questions/13272406/… –  Ravi Dhoriya ツ Apr 18 '14 at 7:33
    
I updated the array bit but now it gives me: SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected keyword –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 7:52

4 Answers 4

up vote 1 down vote accepted

If you removed the \ characters from it and added a , after the first array element, then it would be valid JSON and you could pass it through JSON.parse().

  <div id='container1' data-history='[[0],["test", "test title", "", []]]'></div>
  <script>
    var history = JSON.parse(document.getElementById('container1').getAttribute('data-history'));
    console.log(history);
    alert(history[1][1]);
  </script>

From a comment on another answer:

Its meant to be a multi dimensional array where index 0 contains '["test", "test title", "", []]'

You don't specify the property names in JavaScript or JSON array literal syntax. The position determines the property name. 

data-history='[["test", "test title", "", []]]'>
share|improve this answer
    
Ok I did that and it gives me this error: "SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected end of data". My new code: data-history=[[0]["test", "test title", "", []]] –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 7:31
    
You've removed the ' characters from around the attribute value. Don't do that. Attribute values containing spaces must be quoted. –  Quentin Apr 18 '14 at 7:32
    
hmm, you are also missing a comma after the first array element –  Quentin Apr 18 '14 at 7:36
up vote 0 down vote

Besides the escape characters (that are to be removed), the following string is not regular JSON:

[[0]["test", "test title", "", []]]

So eventually it won't be parsed by JSON.parse(). Maybe you ment following form:

[[0, "test", "test title", "", []]]

That is correctly parsed by JSON.parse():

var dataHistory = JSON.parse('[[0, "test", "test title", "", []]]');

EDIT

As for the multidimensional array, there are several possibilities:

  1. use the natural position of the elements:

    var dataHistory = [
  ["test", "test title", "", []]    //this is the 0 element
];
var myZeroElement = dataHistory[0];

  2. use a key, value structure:

    var dataHistory = [
  {'key':'0', 'value': ["test", "test title", "", []]}
];
var myZeroElement = dataHistory[0].value;
share|improve this answer
    
Its meant to be a multi dimensional array where index 0 contains '["test", "test title", "", []]' –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 7:36
    
I've changed it to your first suggestion but it gives me this error:SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected keyword –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 7:51
    
Please post the code you use to grab the data-history attribute value and to parse it. –  Alberto De Caro Apr 18 '14 at 8:07
up vote 0 down vote

Since both javascript and php have the same two types of quotes to delimitate strings, you need to escape some of them:

echo '<div id="container1" data-history=\'[[0],["test", "test title", "", []]]\' data-current-url="'.$url.'">';
share|improve this answer
    
I had at the start but apparently that wasn't valid according to answers. –  Nuvolari Apr 18 '14 at 8:03
    
What is not valid? –  Maurice Perry Apr 18 '14 at 8:05
    
Oh yes, there is a missing comma –  Maurice Perry Apr 18 '14 at 8:07
    
Added the comma. now it's correct –  Maurice Perry Apr 18 '14 at 8:09
up vote -1 down vote

This data is not valid JSON string. You can check it here: http://jsonlint.com/

In PHP use json_encore($table); to encode your array to a valid JSON string and put it in your HTML attribute.

Then use JSON.parse(history) in your JS to get the corresponding JSON object.

EDIT: Change yout php to this:

echo '<div id="container1" data-history="[\"test\", \"test title\", \"\"]" data-current-url="'.$url.'">';

And use the JS code I supplied.

share|improve this answer
    
Can the downvote be explained ? –  ZarkDev Apr 18 '14 at 9:02

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