Question

I am getting some Json from the server that I loop through to dynamically build a table in the dom.
When there are more than one objects the data is returned as an array of objects
like this:

{
    "ProductList": {
        "Products": [{
            "ProductID": "1",
            "Name": "ProdName"},
        {
            "ProductID": "2",
            "Name": "ProdName2"}]
    }
}

however when there is only one object it is returned simply as an object and not an array like this:

{
    "ProductList": {
        "Products": {
            "ProductID": "3",
            "Name": "ProdName3"
        }
    }
}

So what I have been doing is checking if it is an array like this:

if ($.isArray(productDetails.ProductList.Products) === true) {
    for (i = 0; i < productDetails.ProductList.Products.length; i++) {
      //Create the dom elements by accessing the object properties with [i]
      //ie. productDetails.ProductList.Products[i].ProductsID
    }
}
else {
   //Create the dom elements by accessing the object properties w/o [i]
   //ie. productDetails.ProductList.Products.ProductsID
}

It works but I have a lot of code that is exactly the same except for the way the object properties are accessed and whenever I change one i need to remember to change the other or I will have problems.
On the client side is their a better way to handle this?

Answer 1

How about converting products to array if it’s not?

var products = productDetails.ProductList.Products;
if (!$.isArray(products)) {
    products = new Array(products);
}

... all logic here