Unable to parse JSON - json

Question

I am making a request to an external API from my node server:
request("https://api.data.gov/ed/collegescorecard/v1/schools/?id=168421&api_key=", function(error, response, body) {
console.log(JSON.parse(body));
console.log(body.metadata);
console.log(JSON.parse(body.metadata));
});
The first console gives the output:
{ metadata: { total: 1, page: 0, per_page: 20 },
results:
[ { '1996': [Object],
'1997': [Object],
'1998': [Object],
'1999': [Object],
'2000': [Object],
'2001': [Object],
'2002': [Object],
'2003': [Object],
'2004': [Object],
'2005': [Object],
'2006': [Object],
'2007': [Object],
'2008': [Object],
'2009': [Object],
'2010': [Object],
'2011': [Object],
'2012': [Object],
'2013': [Object],
'2014': [Object],
ope6_id: 2233,
location: [Object],
id: 168421,
school: [Object],
ope8_id: 223300 } ] }
The second log gives me an 'undefined'
The third log gives me SyntaxError: Unexpected token u
Why? How do I access only the metadata or results field?

Answer 1

you are trying to use body when this is not the json object. You have used JSON.parse only to console log, but haven't stored the value
var jsonBody = JSON.parse(body)
console.log(jsonBody);
console.log(jsonBody.metadata);
alternatively you could have done this console.log(JSON.parse(body).metadata);. You are parsing body as a json and then getting metadata from that parsed json