eval() is not necessary. This will work fine:
var date = new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)));
The substr() function takes out the /Date( part, and the parseInt() function gets the integer and ignores the )/ at the end. The resulting number is passed into the Date constructor.
I have intentionally left out the radix (the 2nd argument to parseInt); see my comment below.
Also, I completely agree with Rory's comment: ISO-8601 dates are preferred over this old format - so this format generally shouldn't be used for new development.
For ISO-8601 formatted JSON dates, just pass the string into the Date constructor:
var date = new Date(jsonDate); //no ugly parsing needed; full timezone support
No.
The JSON is data only, and if you include a comment, then it will be data too.
You could have a designated data element called "_comment" (or something) that should be ignored by apps that use the JSON data.
You would probably be better having the comment in the processes that generates/receives the JSON, as they are supposed to know what the JSON data will be in advance, or at least the structure of it.
But if you decided to:
{
"_comment": "comment text goes here...",
"glossary": {
"title": "example glossary",
"GlossDiv": {
"title": "S",
"GlossList": {
"GlossEntry": {
"ID": "SGML",
"SortAs": "SGML",
"GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
"Acronym": "SGML",
"Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
"GlossDef": {
"para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
"GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
},
"GlossSee": "markup"
}
}
}
}
}
Best Answer
You can use
isKindOfClass:to test whether the object is an instance of NSDictionary or of any subclass thereof.In most circumstances, you would be better served by a
respondsToSelector:check, but this is one case where you really are better off testing its class membership.Of course, you can test whether it's an array instead of whether it's a dictionary; as long as the API you're using only returns an array or dictionary, the effect is the same.
For true robustness, test both array and dictionary membership, and throw an exception or present an error if the object is neither.