JSON Stringify Online

What you can do here

• JSON stringify: JSON.stringify(value), the compact one-line form
• JSON serialize with indentation: JSON.stringify(value, null, 2)
• JSON to string: wrap the JSON in quotes and escape it, ready for JavaScript, an API field, a log or a test fixture
• Parse / unstringify: turn "{\"a\":1}" back into {"a":1}, even when it was stringified twice
• Sort keys alphabetically for stable output and cleaner diffs

Links for each operation: ?mode=compact, ?mode=pretty, ?mode=string and ?mode=parse.

Stringify, serialize and “to string” compared

Operation	Equivalent code	Output for {"a": "x y"}
Stringify (compact)	JSON.stringify(v)	{"a":"x y"}
Serialize (indented)	JSON.stringify(v, null, 2)	{ /   "a": "x y" / }
JSON to string	JSON.stringify(JSON.stringify(v))	"{\"a\":\"x y\"}"
Parse string to JSON	JSON.parse(JSON.parse(s))	{"a":"x y"}

Stringifying parses the input first, so invalid JSON — a trailing comma, single-quoted keys, a missing comma — is rejected with the parser's error rather than passed through. Only whitespace between tokens changes; key order, array order, numbers and string contents are kept exactly (unless you tick Sort keys).

Worked example

Input:
{
  "name": "Ada",
  "roles": ["admin", "user"],
  "active": true
}

Stringify:      {"name":"Ada","roles":["admin","user"],"active":true}
JSON to string: "{\"name\":\"Ada\",\"roles\":[\"admin\",\"user\"],\"active\":true}"

When you need each one

• Compact: an environment variable, a one-record-per-line NDJSON log, a shell one-liner, a spreadsheet cell or database column.
• Indented: reading an API response, a fixture in version control, a config file.
• JSON to string: a JSON document stored inside another JSON field (webhooks, message queues, DynamoDB), a string constant in JavaScript, Java or C#, or a -d argument that must be quoted.
• Parse: a log or API that returned "{\"id\":1}" (double-encoded JSON) and you want the real object.

Common questions