stringifyJSON.js

function stringifyJSON(subject) {
  var output = '';
  var type = typeof subject;
  if (type === 'number') {
    return subject.toString();
  } else if (subject === null) {
    return 'null';
  } else if (type === "boolean") {
    return subject.toString();
  } else if (type === "string") {
    return ('"' + (subject) + '"')
  } else if (Object.prototype.toString.call(subject) === '[object Array]') {
    var index = subject.length;
    output += '[';
    subject.forEach(function(val){
      if (typeof val === "number") {
        // because for some reason we stringify numbers outside of the arrays, 
        // but not inside the arrays... ok... talk about a 'gotcha'. O_o;
        output += val;
      } else {
        // let all other values in the array be stringified according to the rules above.
        output += stringifyJSON(val);
      }
      index--;
      if (index > 0) {output = output.concat(",")}
    });
    output += ']';
    return output;
  } else if (Object.prototype.toString.call(subject) === '[object Object]') {
    var index = Object.keys(subject).length;
    output += '{';
    for (var key in subject) {
      if ( !((key === 'functions') || (key === "undefined")) ) {
        output += (stringifyJSON(key) + ":" +  stringifyJSON(subject[key]))
        index--;
        if (index > 0) { output += "," }
      }
    }
    output += '}';
  } 
  return output;
}


///test values
var stringifiableObjects = [    
  9,    
  null,   
  true,   
  false,    
  "Hello world",    
  [],   
  [8],    
  ["hi"],   
  [8, "hi"],    
  [1, 0, -1, -0.3, 0.3, 1343.32, 3345, 0.00011999999999999999],   
  [8, [[],3,4]],    
  [[[["foo"]]]],    
  {},   
  {"a": "apple"},   
  {"foo": true, "bar": false, "baz": null},   
  {"boolean, true": true, "boolean, false": false, "null": null },    
  // basic nesting    
  {"a":{"b":"c"}},    
  {"a":["b", "c"]},   
  [{"a":"b"}, {"c":"d"}],   
  {"a":[],"c": {}, "b": true}   
];    

var unstringifiableValues = [   
  {   
    'functions': function(){},    
    'undefined': undefined    
  }   
];    

//
// start tests
// 

var passed = 0, failed = 0;   
    
unstringifiableValues.concat(stringifiableObjects).reverse().forEach(function(val){   
        
    JSON.stringify(val) === stringifyJSON(val) ?  
      passed++ : (failed++,
      console.log("what type is it? " + typeof val),
      console.log(Object.prototype.toString.call(val)),   
      // console.log("which statement did it hit? " + hit);   
      console.log("original input to be stringified:"),   
      console.dir(val),
      console.log("which should be turned into:"),
      console.dir(JSON.stringify(val)),
      console.log("this is what my script currently turns it into:"),
      console.dir(stringifyJSON(val)),
      console.log("---- \n")
      ) 
  })    
    
   console.log("Passed " + passed + " out of " + (passed + failed) + "; failed " + failed)

there are more tests... needs to do things with undefined and functions... adding those tests...

now it passes 21 out of 21. and that actually now passes the mocha test suite. that took longer than it should have, but great learning experience.

Went back and polished both the code and the text, after lessons learned from making a ternary version.