Recursively remove null values from JavaScript object

Question

I have a JSON obj, after some operations (like delete some pieces), I print it and everything looks good except that I have some null values. How do I remove these?

I use JSON.stringify(obj, null, 2) method to print, and here is what it looks like:

{
    "store": {
        "book": [
             null,
             {
                 "category": "fiction",
                 "author": "Evelyn Waugh",
                 "title": "Sword of Honour",
                 "price": 12.99
             },
             null,
             {
                  "category": "fiction",
                  "author": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
                  "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
                  "isbn": "0-395-19395-8",
                  "price": 22.99
             }
        ],
        "bicycle": {
             "color": "red",
             null,
             "price": 19.95
        }
    }
}

I want it to be much compact and pretty clean(remove the extra 3 null values):

{
    "store": {
        "book": [
             {
                 "category": "fiction",
                 "author": "Evelyn Waugh",
                 "title": "Sword of Honour",
                 "price": 12.99
             },
             {
                  "category": "fiction",
                  "author": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
                  "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
                  "isbn": "0-395-19395-8",
                  "price": 22.99
             }
        ],
        "bicycle": {
             "color": "red",
             "price": 19.95
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

I had to solve a similar problem, however I wanted to remove not only null values but also undefined, NaN, empty String, empty array and empty object values, recursively, by inspecting nested objects and also nested arrays.

The following function is using Lo-Dash:

function pruneEmpty(obj) {
  return function prune(current) {
    _.forOwn(current, function (value, key) {
      if (_.isUndefined(value) || _.isNull(value) || _.isNaN(value) ||
        (_.isString(value) && _.isEmpty(value)) ||
        (_.isObject(value) && _.isEmpty(prune(value)))) {

        delete current[key];
      }
    });
    // remove any leftover undefined values from the delete 
    // operation on an array
    if (_.isArray(current)) _.pull(current, undefined);

    return current;

  }(_.cloneDeep(obj));  // Do not modify the original object, create a clone instead
}

For example, if you invoke the method with the following input object:

var dirty = {
  key1: 'AAA',
  key2: {
    key21: 'BBB'
  },
  key3: {
    key31: true,
    key32: false
  },
  key4: {
    key41: undefined,
    key42: null,
    key43: [],
    key44: {},
    key45: {
      key451: NaN,
      key452: {
        key4521: {}
      },
      key453: [ {foo: {}, bar:''}, NaN, null, undefined ]
    },
    key46: ''
  },
  key5: {
    key51: 1,
    key52: '  ',
    key53: [1, '2', {}, []],
    key54: [{ foo: { bar: true, baz: null }}, { foo: { bar: '', baz: 0 }}]
  },
  key6: function () {}
};

It'll recursively discard all the "bad" values, keeping in the end only the ones that carry some information.

var clean = pruneEmpty(dirty);
console.log(JSON.stringify(clean, null, 2));

{
  key1: 'AAA',
  key2: {
    key21: 'BBB'
  },
  key3: {
    key31: true,
    key32: false
  },
  key5: {
    key51: 1,
    key52: '  ',
    key53: [1, '2'],
    key54: [{ foo: { bar: true }}, { foo: { baz: 0 }}]
  }
};

Hope it helps!