Question

I want to create a multi-level JSON string with JS.

Scenario

3 countries with 5 grandfathers with 3 kids which whom also have 3 kids that have 5 friends.

I get the data from a external JSON file that looks like this.

 {"countries":[
    {
        "name":"USA",

        "grandfathers":[
            {
                "gFName":"Steve",
                "grandfathersKid":[
                    {
                        "gFKName": "Linda",
                        "kid": [{
                            "name": "Steve JR", 
                            "friends": [{
                                "name": "Kriss|John|Martin|Steven"
                            }]
                        }
                        ]
                    }

                ]
            }
        ]
    }
]}

And now I want to store some of the countries with people and their relatives and friends in a a new JSON list that looks exactly as the list made in the external json file. I aim to use this “homemade” list later on in the script.

My initial response for this was

var tree = new Array();

tree = {};


var countries = new Array();

countries[0] = "canada";
countries[1] = "USA";
countries[2] = "Mexico";
countries[0][0] = "Steve"; //Lives in Canada
countries[0][0][0] = "Linda"; //Daughter of Steve
countries[0][0][0][0] = "Steve JR"; // Kid of Linda
countries[0][0][0][0][0] = "Kriss"; //Steves Friend
...


$.each(countries...function(index, value){
      tree[index].country = value;

  $.each(grandfathers...function(key, value){
      tree[index].country[key].grandfather = value;

}

And so on, but this is not giving me the result I want. What am I doing wrong? And a more effective way than to take each of everything?

Third edit…

Answer 1

Is this the sort of thing you’re trying to do?

var countries = $.map(oldCountries || [], function(country) {
    return {
        name: country.name,
        people: $.map(country.grandfathers || [], function(gpa) {
            return {
                name: gpa.gFName,
                children: $.map(gpa.grandfathersKid || [], function(parent) {
                    return {
                        name: parent.gFKName,
                        children: $.map(parent.kid || [], function(kid) {
                            return {
                                name: kid.name,
                                friends: kid.friends
                            };
                        })
                    };
                })
            };
        })
    };
});

I wasn’t sure what to do with the friends node. Should that be normalized into something more useful, or do you want to leave it alone?

This Fiddle demonstrates the technique.