Issue with JavaScript Column not returning output

[andrewjaustin]

Hi there, I’m not super proficient with JavaScript, but am looking to use the JS column to convert a JSON object with a quantity property into multiple JSON objects, which I believe should work.

The following code works in JSFiddle, but I’m not returning any results in the Glide column (nor any errors):

function parseCart() {
  let initialObject = p1;
  let outputObjects = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < initialObject.quantity; i++) {
    outputObjects.push(JSON.stringify({
      id: initialObject.id,
      item: initialObject.item
    }, null, 2));
  }
  return outputObjects.join(',');
}
return parseCart();

p1 is referencing a column with JSON that is formatted like so:

{
  "id": "foo",
  "item": "Item Title",
  "quantity": 2
}

My desired output is to take the JSON object from p1 and split it into individual objects based on the quantity value:

{
  "id": "foo",
  "item": "Item Title"
},
{
  "id": "foo",
  "item": "Item Title"
}

Any assistance or pointing in the right direction would be so appreciated — thanks in advance!

[Jeff_Hager]

You are trying to return an array. In Glide, you can only return strings. You need to add a .join() to the end of the array object. This should return all JSON objects as a comma delimited string.

[andrewjaustin]

@Jeff_Hager thanks so much for the quick reply! Apologies if I’m misunderstanding, but isn’t that what’s occurring with the line:

return outputObjects.join(',');

Or perhaps the .join() should be placed elsewhere instead?

[Jeff_Hager]

Apologies. I glanced at your code quickly and missed the join. I thought it was just returning the full array.

If I were to guess again…
I think it might be your input. It looks like the JSON string isn’t being turned into an object so initialObject is just text and doesn’t have a quantity attribute. I’ll play around a bit to see if that’s the case.

[Jeff_Hager]

OK, just wanted to verify before I spit more lies.

All you should need to change is the initialObject definition. Change it to this:
let initialObject = JSON.parse(p1);

[andrewjaustin]

That worked beautifully — thank you very much for the help!

[ThinhDinh]

To clarify, it didn’t work initially because the JSON that you use as input is seen as a string, and not a JSON object, so you have to parse it first.