JSON.parse unexpected character error

I get this error:

> JSON.parse: unexpected character

when I run this statement in firebug:

JSON.parse({"balance":0,"count":0,"time":1323973673061,"firstname":"howard","userId":5383,"localid":1,"freeExpiration":0,"status":false});

Why is it so? The JSON string seems correct to me and I also tested it using JSHint. The passed object in the above case is a server response with content type set to application/json

You're not parsing a string, you're parsing an already-parsed object :)

var obj1 = JSON.parse('{"creditBalance":0,...,"starStatus":false}');
//                    ^                                          ^
//                    if you want to parse, the input should be a string 

var obj2 = {"creditBalance":0,...,"starStatus":false};
// or just use it directly.

You can make sure that the object in question is stringified before passing it to parse function by simply using JSON.stringify() .

Updated your line below,

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify({"balance":0,"count":0,"time":1323973673061,"firstname":"howard","userId":5383,"localid":1,"freeExpiration":0,"status":false}));

or if you have JSON stored in some variable:

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(yourJSONobject));

Not true for the OP, but this error can be caused by using single quotation marks (') instead of double (") for strings.

The JSON spec requires double quotation marks for strings.

E.g:

JSON.parse(`{"myparam": 'myString'}`)

gives the error, whereas

JSON.parse(`{"myparam": "myString"}`)

does not. Note the quotation marks around myString.

Related: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14355724/1461850