# \[Bug\] jsonGet's parsing code concatenates list values in jsons **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81\ **Created:** [April 25, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550 "2025-04-25T03:46:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/1 "2025-04-25T03:46:12Z")
Ok this feels like it should be trivial but i cannot figure out how to do it... say i've got something like `jsonGet("{item: [1,2,3,4,5]}", 'item')` which outputs [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. I would like to use index notation to pull out the second element of that array, per [Expression Language and Syntax | Ignition User Manual](https://www.docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.1/platform/expression-language-and-syntax#collection-and-mapping-access). But `jsonGet("{item: [1,2,3,4,5]}", 'item')[1]` gives me an error\_TypeConversion for the quality (item.1 doesn't work either)! XY problem avoidance: i'd like to set an array as a property on a component, and then have another property on that component be that array indexed by a tag -- i.e. ```python component.customprop=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5] component.text = toString(component.customprop[{tagPath}]) ``` EDIT: The plot thickens...because `{ "valueSource": "expr", "expression": "jsonGet(\"{item: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}\", \u0027item\u0027)", "dataType": "StringArray", "name": "New Tag", "tagType": "AtomicTag" }` gives me an array of length 1, whos only value is '12345' Ok, `{ "valueSource": "expr", "expression": "jsonGet(\u0027{\"item\": [\"1\", \"2\", \"3\", \"4\", \"5\"]}\u0027, \u0027item\u0027)", "dataType": "StringArray", "name": "New Tag", "tagType": "AtomicTag" }` Gives me `"1", "2", "3", "4", "5"` as a _single string value_ which _can't_ be correct, since it's not even valid json ---
**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 4:57am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/2 "2025-04-25T04:57:10Z")
The actual best way to do what I want to do appears to be _runscript_ which just seems wrong ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/3 "2025-04-25T08:05:20Z")
Why not make your custom prop an actual array ? Then you can just use `{your_prop}[1]` to get a specific value. ---
**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/4 "2025-04-25T09:48:04Z")
`jsonGet("{'item': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}", 'item')` returns `[1,2,3,4,5]`. (Note lack of spaces after commas.) `typeOf(jsonGet("{'item': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}", 'item'))` returns "String". If I create custom property `arr` = ```python [ 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ] ``` then `{view.custom.arr}[2]` returns value 12. It looks to me that the jsonGet function isn't recognising the item list / array. Update: This seems overly complicated but... ```python split( replace( replace( jsonGet("{'item': [11, 12, 13, 14, 15]}", 'item'), '[', '' ), ']', '' ), ',' )[2, 0] // returns 13 ``` ---
**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/5 "2025-04-25T14:26:49Z")
Would the following json work? ````python "type": "ia.display.label", "meta": { "name": "quartile_label" }, "props": { "text": "Normal", "quartileLabels": [ "Low", "Normal", "High", "Warning" ], "backgroundColors": [ "#B3E5FC", "#C8E6C9", "#FFE0B2", "#FFCDD2" ], "textColors": [ "#01579B", "#1B5E20", "#E65100", "#B71C1C" ] }, "style": { "fontSize": "18px", "fontWeight": "bold", "padding": "10px 20px", "borderRadius": "4px", "marginTop": "20px", "backgroundColor": "#C8E6C9", "color": "#1B5E20" }, "propConfig": { "props.text": { "binding": { "type": "expr", "config": { "expression": "this.props.quartileLabels[{[default]Expressions/Slider_Quartile}]" } } }, "style.backgroundColor": { "binding": { "type": "expr", "config": { "expression": "this.props.backgroundColors[{[default]Expressions/Slider_Quartile}]" } } }, "style.color": { "binding": { "type": "expr", "config": { "expression": "this.props.textColors[{[default]Expressions/Slider_Quartile}]" } } } } },``` EDIT, works besides some improper expressions and binding configs, which i've fixed ```` ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/6 "2025-04-25T14:38:30Z")
`jsonGet` accepts a JSONPath as the second argument: `jsonGet("{item: [1,2,3,4,5]}", 'item[2]')` -\> `3` No need for anything extra. I'm actually not sure why using the subscript outside isn't working (it goes through a totally different logic path, but should still work here) but 🤷 ---
**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/7 "2025-04-25T14:40:56Z")
Huh, ok, thanks! The outside subscript not working I'll just class as a subtle bug, then. (From some forum searches it looks like jsonGet's return type has been borked for a while) ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/8 "2025-04-25T14:46:27Z")
The return type of `jsonGet` depends on its input type. In this case, you are feeding it a String that happens to be valid JSON syntax. What you get back is a String that also happens to be valid JSON syntax (`"[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]"`). I guess the expressions can't index into a String? ---
**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/9 "2025-04-25T14:52:14Z")
can jsonget be passed a pure dict instead of a string in an expression? i assumed brackets would cause the parser to throw a fit ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/10 "2025-04-25T14:53:58Z")
AFAIK there is no "dictionary" type recognized by the expression language. The closest thing to a JSON type in Ignition is the Document type used by the tag system, which the `jsonGet` function understands. i.e. if you were doing this up in Tag land instead of Perspective, and you were passing `jsonGet` a reference to a Document tag's value via e.g. `{MyDocumentTag}`, the result of the operation would be a Document that was actually the extracted array, and I _do_ think the expression language can subsequently index into that. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/11 "2025-04-26T01:14:13Z")
Perhaps you want [jsonDecode()](https://www.automation-pros.com/toolkit/doc/utility.html#jsondecode) instead of `jsonGet()`. ---
**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 10:53am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-jsongets-parsing-code-concatenates-list-values-in-jsons/105550/12 "2025-04-26T10:53:02Z")
Nice! ```python jsonDecode("{'item': [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]}") // returns `{"item": [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]}` jsonDecode("{'item': [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]}")['item']` // returns [10, 20, 30, 40, 50] jsonDecode("{'item': [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]}")['item'][1] // returns 20 ```