Question

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

So in Perl, you can do something like this:

foreach my $var (@vars) {   $hash_table{$var->{'id'}} = $var->{'data'}; }  

I have a JSON object and I want to do the same thing, but with a javascript associative array in jQuery.

I’ve tried the following:

hash_table = new Array();  $.each(data.results), function(name, result) {   hash_table[result.(name).extra_info.a] = result.(name).some_dataset; }); 

Where data is a JSON object gotten from a $.getJSON call. It looks more or less like this (my JSON syntax may be a little off, sorry):

{   results:{     datasets_a:{       dataset_one:{         data:{           //stuff         }         extra_info:{           //stuff         }       }       dataset_two:{          ...       }       ...     }     datasets_b:{       ...     }   } } 

But every time I do this, firebug throws the following error:

‘XML filter is applied to non-xml data’

Answer 1

I think you can use the JSON response as an associative array. So you should be able to go directly in and use the JSON.

Assuming you received the above example:

$('result').innerHTML = data['results']['dataset_a']['dataset_two']['data']; // Or the shorter form: $('result').innerHTML = data.results.dataset_a.dataset_two.data; 

Understand that I haven’t tested this, but it’s safer to use the square brackets with a variable than it is to use parenthesis plus the name with the dot accessor.

Your example is failing because of some convoluted logic I just caught.

$.each(data.results), function(name, result) {      hash_table[result.(name).extra_info.a] = result.(name).some_dataset; }); 

Now, the foreach loop goes through the variable data.results to find the internal elements at a depth of 1. The item it finds is given to the lambda with the key of the item. AKA, the first result will be name = 'datasets_a' item = object. Following me so far? Now you access the returned hash, the object in item, as though it has the child key in name … ‘datasets_a’. But wait, this is the object!

If all else fails… write your result JSON into a text field dynamically and ensure it is formatted properly.