Wrap JSON field names in quotes using vim search and replace

Question

I have a simple json file that isn't well formatted it looks like:

{ ID: '092558667',  
  NAME: 'Store Made',  
  PARENT_CATEGORY_ID: '692558669',  
  INCLUDED_IN_NET_SALES: '1' }  

All I need to do is wrap the field names in double quotes. In vim the closest I have gotten is to wrap the field name and the colon in quotes - obviously I need to figure out how to get the string without the colon wrapped. Here's what I am trying:

:%s/[A-Z_]*:/"&"

If I leave the colon out of the query the whole file ends up being selected.

Answer 1

You can use capture groups:

%s/\([A-Z_]*\):/"\1":/

To handle already quoted keys properly:

%s/"\?\([A-Z_]*\)"\?:/"\1":/

Answer 2

Ok, with the information above I ended up with this:

:%s/[ \t]\([A-Za-z_].*\):/"\1":/

• it supports upper- and lowercase chars
• it skips already quoted fields

Since this can be considered a completion, I mapped it to a vim completion shortcut ctrl-x ctrl-j in .vimrc (they all start with ctrl-x ) :

:noremap <C-x><C-j> :%s/[ \t]\([A-Za-z_].*\):/"\1":/<CR>