Convert JavaScript object or array to JSON for ajax data

Question

So I'm creating an array with element information. I loop through all elements and save the index. For some reason I cannot convert this array to JSON!

This is my array loop:

var display = Array();
$('.thread_child').each(function(index, value){
   display[index]="none";
   if($(this).is(":visible")){
      display[index]="block";
   }
});

I try to turn it into JSON by:

data = JSON.stringify(display);

It doesn't seem to send the proper JSON format!

If I hand code it like this, it works and sends information:

data = {"0":"none","1":"block","2":"none","3":"block","4":"block","5":"block","6":"block","7":"block","8":"block","9":"block","10":"block","11":"block","12":"block","13":"block","14":"block","15":"block","16":"block","17":"block","18":"block","19":"block"};

When I do an alert on the JSON.stringify object it looks the same as the hand coded one. But it doesn't work.

I'm going crazy trying to solve this! What am I missing here? What's the best way to send this information to get the hand coded format?

I am using this ajax method to send data:

$.ajax({
        dataType: "json",
        data:data,
        url: "myfile.php",
        cache: false,
        method: 'GET',
        success: function(rsp) {
            alert(JSON.stringify(rsp));
        var Content = rsp;
        var Template = render('tsk_lst');
        var HTML = Template({ Content : Content });
        $( "#task_lists" ).html( HTML );
        }
    });

Using GET method because I'm displaying information (not updating or inserting). Only sending display info to my PHP file.

---

END SOLUTION

---

var display = {};
$('.thread_child').each(function(index, value){
   display[index]="none";
   if($(this).is(":visible")){
      display[index]="block";
   }
});

$.ajax({
        dataType: "json",
        data: display,
        url: "myfile.php",
        cache: false,
        method: 'GET',
        success: function(rsp) {
            alert(JSON.stringify(rsp));
        var Content = rsp;
        var Template = render('tsk_lst');
        var HTML = Template({ Content : Content });
        $( "#task_lists" ).html( HTML );
        }
    });

Answer 1

I'm not entirely sure but I think you are probably surprised at how arrays are serialized in JSON. Let's isolate the problem. Consider following code:

var display = Array();
display[0] = "none";
display[1] = "block";
display[2] = "none";

console.log( JSON.stringify(display) );

This will print:

["none","block","none"]

This is how JSON actually serializes array. However what you want to see is something like:

{"0":"none","1":"block","2":"none"}

To get this format you want to serialize object, not array. So let's rewrite above code like this:

var display2 = {};
display2["0"] = "none";
display2["1"] = "block";
display2["2"] = "none";

console.log( JSON.stringify(display2) );

This will print in the format you want.

You can play around with this here: http://jsbin.com/oDuhINAG/1/edit?js,console