Excel VBA: Parsed JSON Object Loop

Question

Per example below...Looping through an object from a parsed JSON string returns an error "Object doesn't support this property or method". Could anyone advise how to make this work? Much appreciated (I spent 6 hours looking for an answer before asking here).

Function to parse JSON string into object (this works OK).

Function jsonDecode(jsonString As Variant)
    Set sc = CreateObject("ScriptControl"): sc.Language = "JScript" 
    Set jsonDecode = sc.Eval("(" + jsonString + ")")
End Function

Looping through the parsed object returns error "Object doesn't support this property or method".

Sub TestJsonParsing()
    Dim arr As Object 'Parse the json array into here
    Dim jsonString As String

    'This works fine
    jsonString = "{'key1':'value1','key2':'value2'}"
    Set arr = jsonDecode(jsonString)
    MsgBox arr.key1 'Works (as long as I know the key name)

    'But this loop doesn't work - what am I doing wrong?
    For Each keyName In arr.keys 'Excel errors out here "Object doesn't support this property or method"
        MsgBox "keyName=" & keyName
        MsgBox "keyValue=" & arr(keyName)
    Next
End Sub 

PS. I looked into these libraries already:

-vba-json Wasn't able to get the example working.
-VBJSON There's no vba script included (this might work but don't know how to load it into Excel and there is minimum documentation).

Also, Is it possible to access Multidimensional parsed JSON arrays? Just getting a basic key/value array loop working would be great (sorry if asking too much). Thanks.

---

Edit: Here are two working examples using the vba-json library. The question above is still a mystery though...

Sub TestJsonDecode() 'This works, uses vba-json library
    Dim lib As New JSONLib 'Instantiate JSON class object
    Dim jsonParsedObj As Object 'Not needed

    jsonString = "{'key1':'val1','key2':'val2'}"
    Set jsonParsedObj = lib.parse(CStr(jsonString))

    For Each keyName In jsonParsedObj.keys
        MsgBox "Keyname=" & keyName & "//Value=" & jsonParsedObj(keyName)
    Next

    Set jsonParsedObj = Nothing
    Set lib = Nothing
End Sub

Sub TestJsonEncode() 'This works, uses vba-json library
    Dim lib As New JSONLib 'Instantiate JSON class object
    Set arr = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

    arr("key1") = "val1"
    arr("key2") = "val2"

    MsgBox lib.toString(arr)
End Sub

Moiramoirai

Fyi: Got function code from here: tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/json/message/972 (don't have enough karma to put another link in the question). – Moiramoirai

Fyi: This Japanese user wrote a good piece on the issue: translate.google.com/… – Moiramoirai

Your first example doesn't work because "arr" is a native js object and it doesn't have "keys". Other libraries parse json directly to a dictionary (possibly with other nested dictionaries). That's why your second example works: you're iterating over the dictionary's keys. – Sonnie

@randyr I found this information to be inaccurate: objJSON ["key"]. When I tried that syntax, the VBA editor kept changing it to Debug.Print arr; ["key"] and inserting a semicolon. – Fonseca

These days I'd recommend JsonBag. Only one class, comes with documentation, and it's very easy to use. – Tantalate

Note that the above approach makes the system vulnerable in some cases, since it allows the direct access to the drives (and other stuff) for the malicious JS code via ActiveX's. Let's suppose you are parsing web server response JSON, like JsonString = "{a:(function(){(new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject')).CreateTextFile('C:\\Test.txt')})()}". After evaluating it you'll find new created file C:\Test.txt. So JSON parsing with ScriptControl ActiveX is not a good idea. Check the update of my answer for the RegEx-based JSON parser. – Tieshatieup

I've just written a couple of VBA files that lets you parse JSON very easily - see github.com/mlocati/vba-json – Tours

Michele, thanks for sharing. That library looks great... – Moiramoirai

Answer 1

The JScriptTypeInfo object is a bit unfortunate: it contains all the relevant information (as you can see in the Watch window) but it seems impossible to get at it with VBA.

If the JScriptTypeInfo instance refers to a Javascript object, For Each ... Next won't work. However, it does work if it refers to a Javascript array (see GetKeys function below).

So the workaround is to again use the Javascript engine to get at the information we cannot with VBA. First of all, there is a function to get the keys of a Javascript object.

Once you know the keys, the next problem is to access the properties. VBA won't help either if the name of the key is only known at run-time. So there are two methods to access a property of the object, one for values and the other one for objects and arrays.

Option Explicit

Private ScriptEngine As ScriptControl

Public Sub InitScriptEngine()
    Set ScriptEngine = New ScriptControl
    ScriptEngine.Language = "JScript"
    ScriptEngine.AddCode "function getProperty(jsonObj, propertyName) { return jsonObj[propertyName]; } "
    ScriptEngine.AddCode "function getKeys(jsonObj) { var keys = new Array(); for (var i in jsonObj) { keys.push(i); } return keys; } "
End Sub

Public Function DecodeJsonString(ByVal JsonString As String)
    Set DecodeJsonString = ScriptEngine.Eval("(" + JsonString + ")")
End Function

Public Function GetProperty(ByVal JsonObject As Object, ByVal propertyName As String) As Variant
    GetProperty = ScriptEngine.Run("getProperty", JsonObject, propertyName)
End Function

Public Function GetObjectProperty(ByVal JsonObject As Object, ByVal propertyName As String) As Object
    Set GetObjectProperty = ScriptEngine.Run("getProperty", JsonObject, propertyName)
End Function

Public Function GetKeys(ByVal JsonObject As Object) As String()
    Dim Length As Integer
    Dim KeysArray() As String
    Dim KeysObject As Object
    Dim Index As Integer
    Dim Key As Variant

    Set KeysObject = ScriptEngine.Run("getKeys", JsonObject)
    Length = GetProperty(KeysObject, "length")
    ReDim KeysArray(Length - 1)
    Index = 0
    For Each Key In KeysObject
        KeysArray(Index) = Key
        Index = Index + 1
    Next
    GetKeys = KeysArray
End Function


Public Sub TestJsonAccess()
    Dim JsonString As String
    Dim JsonObject As Object
    Dim Keys() As String
    Dim Value As Variant
    Dim j As Variant

    InitScriptEngine

    JsonString = "{""key1"": ""val1"", ""key2"": { ""key3"": ""val3"" } }"
    Set JsonObject = DecodeJsonString(CStr(JsonString))
    Keys = GetKeys(JsonObject)

    Value = GetProperty(JsonObject, "key1")
    Set Value = GetObjectProperty(JsonObject, "key2")
End Sub

Note:

• The code uses early binding. So you have to add a reference to "Microsoft Script Control 1.0".
• You have to call InitScriptEngine once before using the other functions to do some basic initialization.

Ironworker

Codo thanks - answered. This will set me on the right path. I'll let Bastan know also (he has a linked question to this). – Moiramoirai

@Ironworker Thanks, please tell me if we have some inbuilt libraries now. – Talishatalisman

Note that the above approach makes the system vulnerable in some cases, since it allows the direct access to the drives (and other stuff) for the malicious JS code via ActiveX's. Let's suppose you are parsing web server response JSON, like JsonString = "{a:(function(){(new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject')).CreateTextFile('C:\\Test.txt')})()}". After evaluating it you'll find new created file C:\Test.txt. So JSON parsing with ScriptControl ActiveX is not a good idea. Check the update of my answer for the RegEx-based JSON parser. – Tieshatieup

Answer 2

Codo's answer is great and forms the backbone of a solution.

However, did you know VBA's CallByName gets you pretty far in querying a JSON structure. I've just written a solution over at Google Places Details to Excel with VBA for an example.

Actually just rewritten it without managing to use the functions adding to ScriptEngine as per this example. I achieved looping through an array with CallByName only.

So some sample code to illustrate

'Microsoft Script Control 1.0;  {0E59F1D2-1FBE-11D0-8FF2-00A0D10038BC}; C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msscript.ocx

Option Explicit

Sub TestJSONParsingWithVBACallByName()

    Dim oScriptEngine As ScriptControl
    Set oScriptEngine = New ScriptControl
    oScriptEngine.Language = "JScript"

    Dim jsonString As String
    jsonString = "{'key1':'value1','key2':'value2'}"

    Dim objJSON As Object
    Set objJSON = oScriptEngine.Eval("(" + jsonString + ")")

    Debug.Assert VBA.CallByName(objJSON, "key1", VbGet) = "value1"
    Debug.Assert VBA.CallByName(objJSON, "key2", VbGet) = "value2"

    Dim jsonStringArray As String
    jsonStringArray = "[ 1234, 4567]"

    Dim objJSONArray As Object
    Set objJSONArray = oScriptEngine.Eval("(" + jsonStringArray + ")")

    Debug.Assert VBA.CallByName(objJSONArray, "length", VbGet) = "2"

    Debug.Assert VBA.CallByName(objJSONArray, "0", VbGet) = "1234"
    Debug.Assert VBA.CallByName(objJSONArray, "1", VbGet) = "4567"


    Stop

End Sub

And it does sub-objects (nested objects) as well see Google Maps example at Google Places Details to Excel with VBA

EDIT: Don't use Eval, try to parse JSON safer, see this blog post

Vermouth

Answer 3

Super Simple answer - through the power of OO (or is it javascript ;) You can add the item(n) method you always wanted!

my full answer here

Private ScriptEngine As ScriptControl

Public Sub InitScriptEngine()
    Set ScriptEngine = New ScriptControl
    ScriptEngine.Language = "JScript"
    ScriptEngine.AddCode "Object.prototype.myitem=function( i ) { return this[i] } ; "
    Set foo = ScriptEngine.Eval("(" + "[ 1234, 2345 ]" + ")") ' JSON array
    Debug.Print foo.myitem(1) ' method case sensitive!
    Set foo = ScriptEngine.Eval("(" + "{ ""key1"":23 , ""key2"":2345 }" + ")") ' JSON key value
    Debug.Print foo.myitem("key1") ' WTF

End Sub

Chopine

This did not work. sc.AddCode "Object.prototype.get=function( i ) { return this[i]; };" ... Debug.Print arr.get("key") ... Error: Method 'get' of object 'JScriptTypeInfo' failed. – Fonseca

For anyone having issues with VBE or just not wanting to use it, I use Sub JSON() Dim o As Object Set o = CreateObject("ScriptControl") o.Language = "JScript" Dim output As String output = o.Eval("(" + "{""bob"":""Bobs Name"",""jim"":[1,2,3,4,5]}" + ")").bob MsgBox output End Sub – Suez

Answer 4

As Json is nothing but strings so it can easily be handled if we can manipulate it the right way, no matter how complex the structure is. I don't think it is necessary to use any external library or converter to do the trick. Here is an example where I've parsed json data using string manipulation.

Sub Json_data()
Const URL = "https://api.redmart.com/v1.5.8/catalog/search?extent=2&pageSize=6&sort=1&category=bakery"
Dim http As New XMLHTTP60, html As New HTMLDocument
Dim str As Variant

With http
    .Open "GET", URL, False
    .send
    str = Split(.responseText, "category_tags"":")
End With
On Error Resume Next
y = UBound(str)

    For i = 1 To y
        Cells(i, 1) = Split(Split(str(i), "title"":""")(1), """")(0)
        Cells(i, 2) = Split(Split(str(i), "sku"":""")(1), """")(0)
        Cells(i, 3) = Split(Split(str(i), "price"":")(1), ",")(0)
        Cells(i, 4) = Split(Split(str(i), "desc"":""")(1), """")(0)
    Next i
End Sub

Prophylactic

Answer 5

So its 2020 and yet due to lack of an end-to-end solution, I stumbled upon this thread. It did help but if we need to access the data without Keys at runtime dynamically, the answers above, still need a few more tweaks to get the desired data.

I finally came up with a function to have an end-to-end neat solution to this JSON parsing problem in VBA. What this function does is, it takes a JSON string(nested to any level) as input and returns a formatted 2-dimensional array. This array could further easily be moved to Worksheet by plain i/j loops or could be played around conveniently due to its easy index-based accessibility.

Sample input-output

The function is saved in a JSON2Array.bas file at my Github repo. JSON2Array-VB

A demo usage subroutine is also included in the .bas file. Please download and import the file in your VBA modules. I hope it helps.

Kweilin

While the Script Control is cool, it comes with lots of problems, especially with 64-bit VBA. My solution avoids the Script Control and works no matter how complex the JSON is. – Mansur

Answer 6

I know it's late, but for those who doesn't know how to use VBJSON, you just have to:

1) Import JSON.bas into your project (Open VBA Editor, Alt + F11; File > Import File)

2) Add Dictionary reference/class For Windows-only, include a reference to "Microsoft Scripting Runtime"

You can also use the VBA-JSON the same way, which is specific for VBA instead of VB6 and has all the documentation.

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