Convert JSON array to an HTML table in jQuery

Question

Is there a really easy way I can take an array of JSON objects and turn it into an HTML table, excluding a few fields? Or am I going to have to do this manually?

Answer 1

Using jQuery will make this simpler.

The following code will take an array of arrays and store convert them into rows and cells.

$.getJSON(url , function(data) {
    var tbl_body = "";
    var odd_even = false;
    $.each(data, function() {
        var tbl_row = "";
        $.each(this, function(k , v) {
            tbl_row += "<td>"+v+"</td>";
        });
        tbl_body += "<tr class=\""+( odd_even ? "odd" : "even")+"\">"+tbl_row+"</tr>";
        odd_even = !odd_even;               
    });
    $("#target_table_id tbody").html(tbl_body);
});

You could add a check for the keys you want to exclude by adding something like

var expected_keys = { key_1 : true, key_2 : true, key_3 : false, key_4 : true };

at the start of the getJSON callback function and adding:

if ( ( k in expected_keys ) && expected_keys[k] ) {
...
}

around the tbl_row += line.

Edit: Was assigning a null variable previously

Edit: Version based on Timmmm's injection-free contribution.

$.getJSON(url , function(data) {
    var tbl_body = document.createElement("tbody");
    var odd_even = false;
    $.each(data, function() {
        var tbl_row = tbl_body.insertRow();
        tbl_row.className = odd_even ? "odd" : "even";
        $.each(this, function(k , v) {
            var cell = tbl_row.insertCell();
            cell.appendChild(document.createTextNode(v.toString()));
        });        
        odd_even = !odd_even;               
    });
    $("#target_table_id").append(tbl_body);   //DOM table doesn't have .appendChild
});