difference between json string and parsed json string

Question

what is the difference between json string and parsed json string? for eg in javascript suppose i have a string in the json format say [{},{}]

parsing this string will also produce the same thing.

So why do we need to parse?

Answer 1

It's just serialization/deserialization.

In Javscript code you normally work with the object, as that lets you easily get its properties, etc, while a JSON string doesn't do you much good.

var jsonobj = { "arr": [ 5, 2 ], "str": "foo" };
console.log(jsonobj.arr[1] + jsonobj.str);
// 2foo

var jsonstr = JSON.stringify(jsonobj);
// cannot do much with this

To send it to the server via an Ajax call, though, you need to serialize (stringify) it first. Likewise, you need to deserialize (parse) from a string into an object when receiving JSON back from the server.