Escaping quotes in JSON data

[naio]

 The content of myField is:

text before quotes "quoted text"

and I want to format a JSON object:

JSONFormatElements ( "{\"object\":\"" & myTable::myField & "\"}")

the quotes within my data make invalid JSON, so I escape quotes:

JSONFormatElements ( "{\"object\":\"" & Substitute ( myTable::myField; "\""; "\\\"")  & "\"}")

Then I get valid JSON like this:

{"object" : "text before quotes \"\u0016quoted text\u0016\""}

I wonder where these \u0016 characters added around the quoted text come from, I don't want them there

How should I escape quotes without this problem?

Edited March 23, 2021 by naio

[comment]

20 minutes ago, naio said:

where these \u0016 characters added around the quoted text come from

Apparently your field contains some invisible control characters . You can test this by checking the result of:

Code ( myTable::myField )

for the presence of the string "00022".

---
BTW, is there a reason you won't let Filemaker create the JSON object for you by using:

JSONSetElement ( "" ; "object" ; myTable::myField ; 1 )

and save yourself the trouble of escaping the quotes (and other special characters)?

[naio]

Oops!  you are right, actually those characters are in the source data but invisible within FM.

Regarding the use of JSONSetElement: I think that, for large JSON objects, JSONFormatElements avoids the nesting of several JSONSetElement functions. Anyway I'll consider your advice.

Thanks for your help!

 

[comment]

7 minutes ago, naio said:

JSONFormatElements avoids the nesting of several JSONSetElement functions.

I don't think so. JSONFormatElements has nothing to do with creating JSON. All it does is look at a string, and if the string is a valid JSON string, it formats it. It doesn't care how the string was created.

 

[naio]

You're absolutely right, I'm discovering the world of JSONSetElement with brackets, already got rid of that JSONFormatElement...

Thank you,