JavaScript: like JSON.stringify but handles functions, good for creating arbitrary .js objects?

stringify.js

var stringify = function(obj, prop) {
  var placeholder = '____PLACEHOLDER____';
  var fns = [];
  var json = JSON.stringify(obj, function(key, value) {
    if (typeof value === 'function') {
      fns.push(value);
      return placeholder;
    }
    return value;
  }, 2);
  json = json.replace(new RegExp('"' + placeholder + '"', 'g'), function(_) {
    return fns.shift();
  });
  return 'this["' + prop + '"] = ' + json + ';';
};

usage.js

var foo = {
  a: function() { return 'a'; },
  b: function() { return 'b'; },
  'bar.baz': {
    'omg ponies!!': function() { return 'c'; }
  }
};

console.log(stringify(foo, 'foo'));

// this["foo"] = {
//   "a": function () { return 'a'; },
//   "b": function () { return 'b'; },
//   "bar.baz": {
//     "omg ponies!!": function () { return 'c'; }
//   }
// };

@cowboy and how to parse later?

Badass. Much better than passing a converter function to JSON.stringify, because with this, the resulting string is the JavaScript representation of the object, i.e. it can be used directly as javascript code with no need to parse.

@jspinoza3 how would you use the final result, without doing analysis and without using eval ()?

TBH I don't even remember what I used this for, 8 years ago. Probably nothing good 😂

I'm using it to generate custom JavaScript code for bookmarklets. Basically the goal is to have the end user be able to enter the parameters values they want into a web form and then it generates a link that they can drag into their bookmarks bar. As a toy example, suppose I had a bookmarklet that printed my name to the console. I could structure the bookmarklet code as a call to the method of an anonymous object like so:

javascript: (
{
    name: "Jeoffrey Spinoza",
    f()
    {
        console.log(this.name);
    }
}
).f();

Structuring the code like above may seam like a Rube Goldberg approach, but the advantage is, using that structure makes it easy to programmatically generate analogous code for printing someone else's name, because all I have to do in my code generation program is start with the anonymous object above, change the name property, stringify it, paste the two boilerplate lines on the top and bottom, and then provide the code to the user by storing it in a link's href.

var callable =
{
    name: "Jeoffrey Spinoza",
    f()
    {
        console.log(this.name);
    }
};
callable.name = "Jane Doe";
var janesBookmarkletCode = "javascript: ("+stringify(callable) + ").f();"
document.getElementById("bookmarkletLink").href = janesBookmarkletCode;

Of course the minor issue is, as it currently is written, the stringify function doesn't handle methods defined in the concise syntax above (without "function" keyword). I'm trying to work that out right now.

how cool, if you can get to the solution to your current problem with function, share

how cool, if you can get to the solution to your current problem with function, share

https://gist.github.com/jspinoza3/1805df875fe168833dddc3f7e1abbad7
^^handles concise method syntax and fat arrows.

This stringify function is a custom implementation designed to stringify JavaScript objects, similar to JSON.stringify, but with the ability to handle functions within the object. It replaces slice master functions with a placeholder string during the stringification process and then restores them after the JSON string is created.

Just wanted to comment that this function has saved me more than once!

thanks a lot cowboy, javascript is more than json!

how cool, if you can get to the solution to your current problem with function, share

https://gist.github.com/jspinoza3/1805df875fe168833dddc3f7e1abbad7 ^^handles concise method syntax and fat arrows.

the link is dead, but your code was enough for me now.