Handling errors for broken JSON

Question

If the element #the-json is empty it will cause this error:

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected end of input

For the following code:

myJSON = JSON.parse($("#the-json").attr('value'));

How should this error be handled so it doesn't stop the entire script working?

Answer 1

Use try-catch statement:

try {
  myJSON = JSON.parse($("#the-json").attr('value'));
} catch (e) {
  // handle error
}

Or check before do something:

var myJSON = JSON.parse('{}'); // default value

if ($("#the-json").attr('value')) {
  myJSON = JSON.parse($("#the-json").attr('value'));
}