A] Problem summary:

I have JSON data being returned from python to javascript. I want to go thru the JSON structure and print the data elements in a html table.

B] Code excerpts:

1] JSON being returned from python --

{'data_for_users_city': 
 '[
    {"city": 
            {"city_name": "Boston", 
             "country": {"country_name": "United States"}
            },
            "status": true, 
            "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:00 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 0, "microsecond": 796000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 0, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169080.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:00.796000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}
    },
  ]'
}

Note this is a single city, like this there are many city elements in the JSON data.

2] Javascript code that I tried for parsing thru the data-structure and printing data elements in the “tbody” of a pre-ready HTML table “#datatable_for_current_users”

function LoadUsersDatatable(data) {
   var tbody = $("#datatable_for_current_users > tbody").html("");

   for (var i=0; i < data.length; i++) 
    {
      var city = data.data_for_users_city[i];
        var rowText = "<tr class='gradeA'><td>" + city.county.country_name + "</td><td>" + city.city_name + "</td><td>" + city.status + "</td><td>" + city.date_time.ctime + "</td></tr>";

          $(rowText).appendTo(tbody);
 }
}    

Problems i am having the javascript code are :

1] I am unable to find the exact length of the city elements in the "data" because of which i dont know what the upper bound of the for loop is

2] I am not sure whether i am accessing the "city" variable correctly inside the for loop.

[EDIT#1]

Based on the response given by Salman and Pointy, i had to inspect the python code that was returning the json data. After some debugging it was found that the JSON data was being returned using templates because of which the template name was occuring in the JSON data. I changed the mechanism of sending JSON and now the following is how the returned JSON data looks like

[{"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 1, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:00 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 0, "microsecond": 796000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 0, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169080.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:00.796000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 2, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:03 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 3, "microsecond": 359000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 3, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169083.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:03.359000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 3, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:08 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 8, "microsecond": 281000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 8, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169088.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:08.281000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 4, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:14 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 14, "microsecond": 578000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 14, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169094.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:14.578000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 13, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Wed Apr 13 01:37:58 2011", "hour": 1, "isoweekday": 3, "month": 4, "second": 58, "microsecond": 343000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 3], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 13, 1, 37, 58, 2, 103, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302658678.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-13T01:37:58.343000", "day": 13, "minute": 37}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 14, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Wed Apr 13 01:38:01 2011", "hour": 1, "isoweekday": 3, "month": 4, "second": 1, "microsecond": 78000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 3], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 13, 1, 38, 1, 2, 103, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302658681.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-13T01:38:01.078000", "day": 13, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 23, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Sun Apr 17 21:24:18 2011", "hour": 21, "isoweekday": 7, "month": 4, "second": 18, "microsecond": 625000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 7], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 17, 21, 24, 18, 6, 107, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1303075458.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-17T21:24:18.625000", "day": 17, "minute": 24}}]

I am still struggling to get a for loop around this json structure.

[EDIT#2]

After some debugging and response give by @Salman, the following function does the job

function LoadUsersDatatable(data) {
                                   var tbody = $("#datatable_for_current_users > tbody").html(""); 
                                   jsonData = jQuery.parseJSON(data);

                                  开发者_开发百科 for (var i = 0; i < jsonData.length; i++) 
                                    {
                                        var citydata = jsonData[i];
                                        var rowText = "<tr class='gradeA'><td>" + citydata.city.country.country_name + "</td><td>" + citydata.city.city_name + "</td><td>" + citydata.status + "</td><td>" + citydata.date_time.ctime + "</td></tr>";
                                        $(rowText).appendTo(tbody);
                                    }

                                }    

One problem i found while debugging was the JSON returned was in string format and had to be converted to a JSON object, this was done using jQuery.

You seem to be using jQuery. If you want to generate straight HTML from JSON data, one easy solution is to use simple templates through plugin, like jQote2. It provides an easy syntax, that loops through your data. Using JS templates also makes it easier to maintain your HTML structure.

Strange, it seems like data_for_users_city is not and array but a string. I hope this is not a typo or copy/paste error.

Edit 1

Even when you treat it as a string, your JSON still has errors. Newlines inside quotes are not allowed in JavaScript, you must replace them with \n, use the + concatenation operator or use \ to split the string on multiple lines. In case you manage to workaround these problems, you can do a:

var data_for_users_city = eval(data.data_for_users_city);
// sometimes adding extra parenthesis help
// var data_for_users_city = eval('(' + data.data_for_users_city + ')');
alert(data_for_users_city.length);

EDIT 2

This is a quick and dirty demo that I created and tested in FireFox/Firebug console. It basically demonstrates how you can access the three levels of data inside the JSON. To visualize your JSON data properly, copy the following code and paste in jsbeautifier.

var data = [{"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 1, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:00 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 0, "microsecond": 796000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 0, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169080.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:00.796000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 2, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:03 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 3, "microsecond": 359000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 3, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169083.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:03.359000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 3, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:08 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 8, "microsecond": 281000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 8, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169088.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:08.281000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 4, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Thu Apr  7 09:38:14 2011", "hour": 9, "isoweekday": 4, "month": 4, "second": 14, "microsecond": 578000, "isocalendar": [2011, 14, 4], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 7, 9, 38, 14, 3, 97, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302169094.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-07T09:38:14.578000", "day": 7, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 13, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Wed Apr 13 01:37:58 2011", "hour": 1, "isoweekday": 3, "month": 4, "second": 58, "microsecond": 343000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 3], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 13, 1, 37, 58, 2, 103, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302658678.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-13T01:37:58.343000", "day": 13, "minute": 37}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 14, "status": false, "date_time": {"ctime": "Wed Apr 13 01:38:01 2011", "hour": 1, "isoweekday": 3, "month": 4, "second": 1, "microsecond": 78000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 3], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 13, 1, 38, 1, 2, 103, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1302658681.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-13T01:38:01.078000", "day": 13, "minute": 38}}, {"city": {"city_name": "Framingham", "country": {"country_name": "United States", "id": null}, "id": null}, "id": 23, "status": true, "date_time": {"ctime": "Sun Apr 17 21:24:18 2011", "hour": 21, "isoweekday": 7, "month": 4, "second": 18, "microsecond": 625000, "isocalendar": [2011, 15, 7], "timetuple": [2011, 4, 17, 21, 24, 18, 6, 107, -1], "year": 2011, "epoch": 1303075458.0, "isoformat": "2011-04-17T21:24:18.625000", "day": 17, "minute": 24}}];
var table = $("<table border='1'/>");
var thead = $("<thead/>")
    .appendTo(table);
$("<tr/>")
    .append("<th>Country</th>")
    .append("<th>City</th>")
    .append("<th>Status</th>")
    .append("<th>Time</th>")
    .appendTo(thead);
var tbody = $("<tbody/>")
    .appendTo(table);
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
    var citydata = data[i];
    $("<tr/>")
        .append("<td>" + citydata.city.country.country_name + "</td>")
        .append("<td>" + citydata.city.city_name + "</td>")
        .append("<td>" + citydata.status + "</td>")
        .append("<td>" + citydata.date_time.ctime + "</td>")
        .appendTo(tbody);
}
//
// FOR TESTING
//
$("body").append(table);

Did you consider using a Javascript template engine for converting JSON to HTML?

I'm the author of pure.js which is quite original, but there are plenty of classical double-brackets-engines available.

If you are using jQuery consider using the var json = $.parseJSON(data). This will convert your JSON string into a JSON object.

Try it out. It should make getting to your objects a lot easier.