Is JSON.stringify() supported by IE 8?

Question

I need to use:

JSON.stringify() 

which should be supported by Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. I think IE8 also has support for the JSON object. I think IE7 and 6 do not, so I'm doing this:

<!--[if lt IE 8]>     <script src="http://www.json.org/json2.js"></script> <![endif]--> 

so, I think this will import the external JavaScript only if IE6 & 7. I looked at the URL where the script is hosted, they are including only if the IE version is less than 9:

http://code.google.com/p/html5shiv/ <!--[if lt IE 9]>     <script src="http://www.json.org/json2.js"></script> <![endif]--> 

so should I be including this for IE 8 too?

Answer 1

To answer the question in the title directly, yes IE8 supports JSON.stringify() natively.

IE8 is the first version of IE to get this support, and the functionality is explained in detail by the dev team here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2008/09/10/native-json-in-ie8.aspx

The answer the second part of the question, yes you would need to include alternate functionality for IE6/IE7. Something like Modernizr can make it easy to check this.

Also note if the user is in Compatibility View in IE8, the JSON object will not be available.