javascript - Convert string with dot notation to JSON

Question

Given a string as dot notation, how would I create an object from that string (checking for already existing properties): eg

var obj = {};
stringToObj('a.b', 'value1', obj);
stringToObj('a.b.c', 'value2', obj);

would produce

{
   "a": {
    "b": {
        "_x": "value1",
        "c": {
            "_x": "value2"
        }
    }
    }
 }

I've looked at this question and this one but neither seems to be sufficient for what Im doing.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

For those of you who are looking for solution without the _x in the object try this code. A slight modification of the above code (which is brilliant)

stringToObj = function(path,value,obj) {
  var parts = path.split("."), part;
  var last = parts.pop();
  while(part = parts.shift()) {
   if( typeof obj[part] != "object") obj[part] = {};
   obj = obj[part]; // update "pointer"
  }
 obj[last] = value;
}

As bonus the above code will work if you want to update parts of an existing object :)

 var obj = {a:{b:3}};
 stringToObj("a.b",10,obj);
 console.log(obj); //result : {a:{b:10}}