Fastest way to flatten / un-flatten nested JSON objects

Question

I threw some code together to flatten and un-flatten complex/nested JSON objects. It works, but it\'s a bit slow (triggers the \'long script\' warning).

For the flat

Answer 1

This code recursively flattens out JSON objects.

I included my timing mechanism in the code and it gives me 1ms but I'm not sure if that's the most accurate one.

            var new_json = [{
              "name": "fatima",
              "age": 25,
              "neighbour": {
                "name": "taqi",
                "location": "end of the street",
                "property": {
                  "built in": 1990,
                  "owned": false,
                  "years on market": [1990, 1998, 2002, 2013],
                  "year short listed": [], //means never
                }
              },
              "town": "Mountain View",
              "state": "CA"
            },
            {
              "name": "qianru",
              "age": 20,
              "neighbour": {
                "name": "joe",
                "location": "opposite to the park",
                "property": {
                  "built in": 2011,
                  "owned": true,
                  "years on market": [1996, 2011],
                  "year short listed": [], //means never
                }
              },
              "town": "Pittsburgh",
              "state": "PA"
            }]

            function flatten(json, flattened, str_key) {
                for (var key in json) {
                  if (json.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                    if (json[key] instanceof Object && json[key] != "") {
                      flatten(json[key], flattened, str_key + "." + key);
                    } else {
                      flattened[str_key + "." + key] = json[key];
                    }
                  }
                }
            }

        var flattened = {};
        console.time('flatten'); 
        flatten(new_json, flattened, "");
        console.timeEnd('flatten');

        for (var key in flattened){
          console.log(key + ": " + flattened[key]);
        }

Output:

flatten: 1ms
.0.name: fatima
.0.age: 25
.0.neighbour.name: taqi
.0.neighbour.location: end of the street
.0.neighbour.property.built in: 1990
.0.neighbour.property.owned: false
.0.neighbour.property.years on market.0: 1990
.0.neighbour.property.years on market.1: 1998
.0.neighbour.property.years on market.2: 2002
.0.neighbour.property.years on market.3: 2013
.0.neighbour.property.year short listed: 
.0.town: Mountain View
.0.state: CA
.1.name: qianru
.1.age: 20
.1.neighbour.name: joe
.1.neighbour.location: opposite to the park
.1.neighbour.property.built in: 2011
.1.neighbour.property.owned: true
.1.neighbour.property.years on market.0: 1996
.1.neighbour.property.years on market.1: 2011
.1.neighbour.property.year short listed: 
.1.town: Pittsburgh
.1.state: PA