JSON parser (objects are broken)

main.js

/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
// Utility Functions

function dequote(str) {
		// We need to remove excess quotes
		// This seems hacky but I've run through a bunch of test cases and it appears to be what's needed
		var newstring;
		// Replace any escaped quotes
		newstring = str.replace(/\\"/g, '"');
		// The whole string will be wrapped in quotes. Unwrap.
		newstring = newstring.replace(/"(.*)"/, '$1');
		return newstring;
	}



/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
// Content type detectors
function isArray(str) {
	return str.charAt(0) === '[';
}

function isObject(str) {
	return str.charAt(0) === '{';
}

function isNumber(str) {
	return !isNaN(Number(str));
}


/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
// If we see our content types, then we can stop parsing and return what we get

function returnTerminalDatatype(str) {
	var isItSpecial = ['true', 'false', 'null'].indexOf(str);
	// console.log('isItSpecial=' + isItSpecial);

	switch (isItSpecial) {
			// First check for the specials because we don't want to coerce them to something else
			case 0:
				// it's true
				output = true;
				break;
			case 1:
				// it's false
				output = false;
				break;
			case 2:
				// it's a null
				output = null;
				break;
			default: 
				// check for number after true/false because those will automatically coerce to number
				if (isNumber(str)) {
					output = Number(str);
				} else if (isArray(str)) {
					output = buildArray(str);
				} else if (isObject(str)) {
					output = buildObject(str);
				} else {
				// it's a lowly string 
					output = dequote(str);
				}
				break;
			}	

	console.log('TerminalDataype=' + output);

	return output;

}


/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
// Build array or object
// This is the fun part!



function buildArray(str) {
	var newArr = [];
	var newVal;
	var elstart = 1;
	var elend = 1;

	for (var i = 1; i < str.length; i++) {
		if (str[i] === ',' || str[i] === ']') {
			elend = i;
			if (elend - elstart > 0) {
				newVal = returnTerminalDatatype(str.substring(elstart,elend));
				newArr.push(newVal);
			}
			elstart = i+1;
		}
	}

	return newArr;
}

function buildObject(str) {
	var newObj = {};
	var newKey, newVal;
	var elstart = 1;
	var elend = 1;
  
	// All this for 0-length strings
	var contentsStr = str.substring(1,str.length-1);
	contentsStr = contentsStr.trim();
	console.log(contentsStr);
	var contentsLength = contentsStr.length;
	console.log(contentsLength);
  
	if (contentsLength === 0) {
		console.log('broke out');
		return newObj;
	}


	for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
		if (str[i] === ':') {
			elend = i;
			if (elend - elstart > 0) {
				newKey = str.substring(elstart,elend).trim();
		        newKey = returnTerminalDatatype(newKey);
			}
			elstart = i+1;
		}

		if (str[i] === '}' || str[i] === ',') {
			elend = i;
			if (elend - elstart > 0) {
				newVal = str.substring(elstart,elend).trim();
				newVal = returnTerminalDatatype(newVal);
			}
			elstart = i+1;
		}
		newObj[newKey] = newVal;
	}

	return newObj;
}


/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
// Now actually bring it all together

function JSONParser(string) {
	return returnTerminalDatatype(string);
}