How should I parse an array of objects in Node.js? - html

Question

According to my research, that the best way to pass an Array of Objects through a POST method is by using the following name convention:
<!-- first student -->
<input type="text" name="students[][first]">
<input type="text" name="students[][last]">
<input type="text" name="students[][age]">
<!-- second student -->
<input type="text" name="students[][first]">
<input type="text" name="students[][last]">
<input type="text" name="students[][age]">
Body-parser setup:
var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));
When I typed in the post route "req.body.students", I was expecting an array of objects like this:
[ { first: Fname1, last: Lname1, age: Age1} , { first: Fname2, last: Lname2, age: Age2}
Instead, my console.log shows that I got this:
[ { first : [Fname1 , Fname2], last : [Lname1, Lname2], age : [Age1, Age2] } ]
What is going wrong with it? Cheers!

Answer 1

This is simply how the qa library handles data in the format.
It isn't how I would expect the library to behave, and it is different to how PHP (the obvious inspiration) handles data. So you might consider this a bug and join in the discussion on this issue.
You can work around the issue by using explicit indexes for your rows:
<!-- first student -->
<input type="text" name="students[0][first]">
<input type="text" name="students[0][last]">
<input type="text" name="students[0][age]">
<!-- second student -->
<input type="text" name="students[1][first]">
<input type="text" name="students[1][last]">
<input type="text" name="students[1][age]">
A test case:
var qs = require("qs");
var data = "students[0][name]=alice&students[0][age]=11&students[1][name]=bob&students[1][age]=12";
console.log(qs.parse(data));
Outputs:
{ students: [ { name: 'alice', age: '11' }, { name: 'bob', age: '12' } ] }