non-recursive JavaScript JSON parser

Question

I have a very large JSON string that I need to parse with in-browser JavaScript. Right now, in a few browsers, I run out of stack space. Unfortunately, my JSON can contain user strings, so I can't use eval or otherwise let the browser parse it.

I've looked at a few of the standard JavaScript JSON parsers, and they are recursive. Wondering if anyone knows of any JSON parser that is safe and non-recursive. I'd be willing for it to have fewer features -- I just have a giant array of objects.

Alternatively, if someone knows of one that might be easy to modify, that would be a big help too.

EDIT: On closer inspection the stack overflow is thrown by eval() used inside the parser. So, it must be recursive.

Answer 1

JSON parsing in browser is usually done with just eval, but preceding the eval with a regular expression "lint", that is supposed to make it safe to evaluate the JSON.

There is an example on this on wikipedia:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON#Security_issues

Answer 2

If eval throws stackoverflow, you can use this

http://code.google.com/p/json-sans-eval/

A JSON parser that doesn't use eval() at all.

Answer 3

Hi, I recommend you to divide JSON string in chunks, and bring them on demand. May be using AJAX too, you can have a recipe that just fit your needs. Using a "divide and conquer" mechanism, I think you can still use common JSON parsing methods.

Hope that helps,