Issue while converting HTML to JSON

I have a div which contains this:

<div id="hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete" style="display:none;">[{"id":1,"desc":"Amazon","name":"amazon"},{"id":2,"desc":"Apple Bees","name":"applebees"},{"id":3,"desc":"Babys r Us","name":"babysrus"},{"id开发者_如何转开发":4,"desc":"Costco","name":"costco"},{"id":5,"desc":"Concord Produce","name":"concordproduce"},{"id":6,"desc":"Grocery Outlet","name":"groceryoutlet"},{"id":7,"desc":"New India Bazar","name":"newindiabazar"},{"id":8,"desc":"SubWay","name":"subway"},{"id":9,"desc":"Walmart","name":"walmart"}]</div>

and then in the script section I have this

var jsonLocs = $('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html();

Now, jsonLocs[0] is returning

[

instead of

{"id":1,"desc":"Amazon","name":"amazon"}

I understand jsonLocs is considered as string. But how do I get the the first Json object in this array ?

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jsonLocs contains a String object you need to parse the inner HTML as json. Try this:

var jsonLocs = $.parseJSON($('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html()); 

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If you are using jQuery 1.4.1 or newer, you can use jQuery's inbuilt .parseJSON() function:

var jsonLocs = $.parseJSON($('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html());

On older versions, you can just use eval (and expose yourself to potential security/etc issues by doing it wrong, but..):

var jsonLocs = eval('('+$('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html()+')');

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Never Mind, got the answer !! :)

var jsonLocs = eval($('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html());

Did the magic. But wondering if this is the most effecient/recommended way to do this.

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The variable jsonLocs is just a string, that's why when you index the first element, you're getting the first character of the string. What you need to do is parse the value of the HTML into a Javascript object, and then take the first element.

So, you will then need to do something like this:

var jsonLocs = JSON.parse($('#hidLocsJsonForAutoComplete').html());

And of course, for browsers that do not support native JSON parsing, you can use Douglas Crockford's wonderful library (or use eval if you like to live dangerously).