How can I beautify JSON programmatically?

javascript json code-formatting pretty-print
Randy Mayer picture Randy Mayer · Apr 10, 2010 · Viewed 191.7k times · Source

Do you know of any "JSON Beautifier" for JavaScript?

From

{"name":"Steve","surname":"Jobs","company":"Apple"}

To

{
  "name" : "Steve",
  "surname" : "Jobs",
  "company" : "Apple"
}

Example

some_magic(jsonObj); // return beautified JSON

Answer

Andy E picture Andy E · Apr 10, 2010

Programmatic formatting solution:

The JSON.stringify method supported by many modern browsers (including IE8) can output a beautified JSON string:

JSON.stringify(jsObj, null, "\t"); // stringify with tabs inserted at each level
JSON.stringify(jsObj, null, 4);    // stringify with 4 spaces at each level

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/AndyE/HZPVL/

This method is also included with json2.js, for supporting older browsers.

Manual formatting solution

If you don't need to do it programmatically, Try JSON Lint. Not only will it prettify your JSON, it will validate it at the same time.

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