Excel VBA: Parsed JSON Object Loop

The JScriptTypeInfo object is a bit unfortunate: it contains all the relevant information (as you can see in the Watch window) but it seems impossible to get at it with VBA.

If the JScriptTypeInfo instance refers to a Javascript object, For Each ... Next won’t work. However, it does work if it refers to a Javascript array (see GetKeys function below).

So the workaround is to again use the Javascript engine to get at the information we cannot with VBA. First of all, there is a function to get the keys of a Javascript object.

Once you know the keys, the next problem is to access the properties. VBA won’t help either if the name of the key is only known at run-time. So there are two methods to access a property of the object, one for values and the other one for objects and arrays.

Option Explicit

Private ScriptEngine As ScriptControl

Public Sub InitScriptEngine()
    Set ScriptEngine = New ScriptControl
    ScriptEngine.Language = "JScript"
    ScriptEngine.AddCode "function getProperty(jsonObj, propertyName) { return jsonObj[propertyName]; } "
    ScriptEngine.AddCode "function getKeys(jsonObj) { var keys = new Array(); for (var i in jsonObj) { keys.push(i); } return keys; } "
End Sub

Public Function DecodeJsonString(ByVal JsonString As String)
    Set DecodeJsonString = ScriptEngine.Eval("(" + JsonString + ")")
End Function

Public Function GetProperty(ByVal JsonObject As Object, ByVal propertyName As String) As Variant
    GetProperty = ScriptEngine.Run("getProperty", JsonObject, propertyName)
End Function

Public Function GetObjectProperty(ByVal JsonObject As Object, ByVal propertyName As String) As Object
    Set GetObjectProperty = ScriptEngine.Run("getProperty", JsonObject, propertyName)
End Function

Public Function GetKeys(ByVal JsonObject As Object) As String()
    Dim Length As Integer
    Dim KeysArray() As String
    Dim KeysObject As Object
    Dim Index As Integer
    Dim Key As Variant

    Set KeysObject = ScriptEngine.Run("getKeys", JsonObject)
    Length = GetProperty(KeysObject, "length")
    ReDim KeysArray(Length - 1)
    Index = 0
    For Each Key In KeysObject
        KeysArray(Index) = Key
        Index = Index + 1
    Next
    GetKeys = KeysArray
End Function


Public Sub TestJsonAccess()
    Dim JsonString As String
    Dim JsonObject As Object
    Dim Keys() As String
    Dim Value As Variant
    Dim j As Variant

    InitScriptEngine

    JsonString = "{""key1"": ""val1"", ""key2"": { ""key3"": ""val3"" } }"
    Set JsonObject = DecodeJsonString(CStr(JsonString))
    Keys = GetKeys(JsonObject)

    Value = GetProperty(JsonObject, "key1")
    Set Value = GetObjectProperty(JsonObject, "key2")
End Sub

Note:

• The code uses early binding. So you have to add a reference to “Microsoft Script Control 1.0”.
• You have to call InitScriptEngine once before using the other functions to do some basic initialization.