Excel VBA: Parsed JSON Object Loop - json

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.