Is there a better way to output a javascript array from ASP.net?

Question

I often run into the problem of producing a javascript array on an ASP.net page from an IEnumerable and I was wondering if there was an easier or clearer way to do it than

<% bool firstItem = true;
   foreach(var item in items){
      if(firstItem)
      {
         firstItem = false;
      }
      else
      {%>
        ,
      <%}%>
     '<%:item%>'
  %>

The whole thing is made much more verbose because of IE's inability to handle a hanging comma in an array or object.

ChaosPandion · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-21 01:22:20Z

up vote 6 down vote accepted

With a bit of help from System.Linq this becomes quite easy.

var array = [ <%= 
    string.Join(",", items.Select(v => "'" + v.ToString() + "'").ToArray())  
%> ];

answered Feb 21 '11 at 1:22

ChaosPandion
1,245612

Oh I really like that. – stimms Feb 21 '11 at 1:33

1

I really do hope the items never contain an apostrophe character or the </script> character sequence. A good solution would guard against these possibilities. – Timwi Feb 24 '11 at 15:55

add comment (requires an account with 50 reputation)

Yads · Answer 2 · 2011-02-23 22:53:44Z

up vote 3 down vote

Use the JavaScriptSerializer from System.Web.Extensions

<%: new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(items) %>

answered Feb 23 '11 at 22:53

Yads
1535

add comment (requires an account with 50 reputation)

tucaz · Answer 3 · 2011-02-23 00:41:15Z

You can use an anonymous class and DataContractJsonSerializer and do something like this:


var toSerialize = items.Select(x => new { JSProp = x.ItemProp }).ToList();

var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(toSerialize.GetType());
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
serializer.WriteObject(ms, myPerson);
string json = Encoding.Default.GetString(ms.ToArray());

I like this approach because you can create complex javascript types in a simply way.

Sorry if it does not compile but I'm not with a dev machine.

I would find this cleaner and more robust if it used using clauses for the stream and the serializer.
Yeah, sure! The idea was to show the anonymous type generation with LINQ

asked	2 years ago
viewed	446 times
active	2 years ago

Is there a better way to output a javascript array from ASP.net?

3 Answers

Your Answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged c# javascript asp.net or ask your own question.

Is there a better way to output a javascript array from ASP.net?

3 Answers

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged c# javascript asp.net or ask your own question.

Related