How to access a JSON structure key that starts with a number

Question

I've got an odd issue here. I'm accessing someone else's JSON structure so I am not able to change it. The JSON structure keys are named with both characters and numbers like this: 0198456product_id1984561Rashaan Houston feat Tony LoretoartistRashaan Houston feat Tony LoretoSo, in other words, there's a key named "0" and a key named "product_id", both of which contain the same key. Why they did that, I don't know, but they did.In one of the instances, the data stored under the text-named key isn't the same as the numerical-named key. I tried to output the data in the numerical key like this (it's an array of structures):#strStompyJSON.data[1].0#but I get the following error:--Invalid CFML construct found on line 41 at column 31.ColdFusion was looking at the following text:.0--When I do the following, it works fine:#strStompyJSON.data[1].product_id#So it looks as though CF doesn't like accessing a variable that starts with a number. I am able to loop through the structure using a collection loop, and it outputs all of the keys (including the numerical ones) and their values using the following code:#key#: #strStompyJSON.data[1][key]#
However, that doesn't allow me a way to access specific keys named with a number. Is there a way that I can specifically access a key that is named with a number?thanks!Mike

existdissolve · Accepted Answer

Well, it was date that I needed to use, but sometimes the two versions don't match up for some reason or another.

Any ideas how to access the numerical values?

thanks!

Mike

Did you try the bracket notation that I suggested in my first response? In my tests with your code, it worked without issue.

Thanks

existdissolve · Answer

With ColdFusion structures, you can access keys with dot or bracket notation. As you've discovered, using dot notation doesn't work so well when the key is a number.

So just use bracket notation.

Instead of:

#strStompyJSON.data[1].0#

Try:

#strStompyJSON.data[1][0]#

This looks exactly like the collection loop you posted, and that's because this is really what the collection loop is doing anyway--the only difference is that in this example you've explicitly specified the value of the key instead of having CF iterate through all the keys.

Hope this helps!

Message was edited by: existdissolve

0	198456
product_id	198456
1	Rashaan Houston feat Tony Loreto
artist	Rashaan Houston feat Tony Loreto

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