JSON.stringify returns "[object Object]" instead of the contents of the object

Question

Here I'm creating a JavaScript object and converting it to a JSON string, but JSON.stringify returns "[object Object]" in this case, instead of displaying the contents of the object. How can I work around this problem, so that the JSON string actually contains the contents of the object?

var theObject = {name:{firstName:"Mark", lastName:"Bob"}};
alert(JSON.stringify(theObject.toString())); //this alerts "[object Object]"

Answer 1

Use alert(JSON.stringify(theObject));

Answer 2

theObject.toString()

The .toString() method is culprit. Remove it; and the fiddle shall work: http://jsfiddle.net/XX2sB/1/

Answer 3

JSON.stringify returns "[object Object]" in this case

That is because you are calling toString() on the object before serializing it:

JSON.stringify(theObject.toString()) /* <-- here */

Remove the toString() call and it should work fine:

alert( JSON.stringify( theObject ) );