Javascript's JSON.stringify doesn't take key-indexed (associative) arrays?

Question

In JavaScript, you can have objects, like this:

var a = { foo: 12, bar: 34 };

Or arrays with key (named) indexes, like this:

var b = [];
b['foo'] = 56;
b['bar'] = 78;

They're somewhat similar, but obviously not the same.

Now the strange thing is, JSON.stringify doesn't seem to take the array. No errors or anything, JSON.stringify(b) just results in [].

See this jsfiddle example. Am I doing something wrong, or do I just misunderstand how arrays work?

Answer 1

Javascript doesn't support Associative arrays (Like PHP).

var b = []; Declaring explicitly an array, when you are trying to create an Object.

Arrays in Javascript can only contain the Index approach of Arrays, while Objects are more of Associative arrays.

If you change var b = []; to var b = {}; it will solve the problem.

var b = {} Declaring explicitly an Object.