Search JSON for multiple values, not using a library - json

Question

I'd like to be able to search the following JSON object for objects containing the key 'location' then get in return an array or json object with the 'name' of the person plus the value of location for that person.
Sample return:
var matchesFound = [{Tom Brady, New York}, {Donald Steven,Los Angeles}];
var fbData0 = {
"data": [
{
"id": "X999_Y999",
"location": "New York",
"from": {
"name": "Tom Brady", "id": "X12"
},
"message": "Looking forward to 2010!",
"actions": [
{
"name": "Comment",
"link": "http://www.facebook.com/X999/posts/Y999"
},
{
"name": "Like",
"link": "http://www.facebook.com/X999/posts/Y999"
}
],
"type": "status",
"created_time": "2010-08-02T21:27:44+0000",
"updated_time": "2010-08-02T21:27:44+0000"
},
{
"id": "X998_Y998",
"location": "Los Angeles",
"from": {
"name": "Donald Steven", "id": "X18"
},
"message": "Where's my contract?",
"actions": [
{
"name": "Comment",
"link": "http://www.facebook.com/X998/posts/Y998"
},
{
"name": "Like",
"link": "http://www.facebook.com/X998/posts/Y998"
}
],
"type": "status",
"created_time": "2010-08-02T21:27:44+0000",
"updated_time": "2010-08-02T21:27:44+0000"
}
]
};

Answer 1

#vsiege - you can use this javascript lib (http://www.defiantjs.com/) to search your JSON structure.
var fbData0 = {
...
},
res = JSON.search( fbData0, '//*[./location and ./from/name]' ),
str = '';
for (var i=0; i<res.length; i++) {
str += res[i].location +': '+ res[i].from.name +'<br/>';
}
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = str;
Here is a working fiddle;
http://jsfiddle.net/hbi99/XhRLP/
DefiantJS extends the global object JSON with the method "search" and makes it possible to query JSON with XPath expressions (XPath is standardised query language). The method returns an array with the matches (empty array if none were found).
You can test XPath expressions by pasting your JSON here:
http://www.defiantjs.com/#xpath_evaluator