Question

I have a string

string = "masterkey[key1][key2]";

I want to create an associative array out of that, so that it evaluates to:

{
  masterkey: {
    key1: {
      key2: value
    }
  }
}

I have tried this:

var fullName = string;
fullName = fullName.replace(/\[/g, '["');
fullName = fullName.replace(/\]/g, '"]');
eval("var "+fullName+";");

But I get the error: missing ; before statement with an arrow pointing to the first bracket in ([) "var masterkey["key1"]["key2"];"

I know that eval() is not good to use, so if you have any suggestions, preferably without using it, I’d really appreciate it!

Answer 1

Not the most beautiful, but it worked for me:

var
  path = "masterkey[key1][key2]",
  scope = {};

function helper(scope, path, value) {
  var path = path.split('['), i = 0, lim = path.length;
  for (; i < lim; i += 1) {
    path[i] = path[i].replace(/\]/g, '');

    if (typeof scope[path[i]] === 'undefined') {
      scope[path[i]] = {};
    }

    if (i === lim - 1) {
      scope[path[i]] = value;
    }
    else {
      scope = scope[path[i]];
    }
  }
}

helper(scope, path, 'somevalue');

console.log(scope);

demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hR8yM/