javascript - JSON.parse causes "Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token u" -

i have:

<input type="hidden" id="notifications" value="@viewbag.notifications" /> 

when put breakpoint on line , check value, see value is:

[{"id":"42647","isread":0,"messagetype":3},{"id":"fsh3hg","isread":0,"messagetype":2}] 

i want parse value in javascript when page loads, wrote:

var notifications = document.getelementbyid('notifications').value; alert(notifications); // prints undefined alert(document.getelementbyid('notifications')); // prints: object htmlspanelement  var parsednotifications;  if (notifications != '') {     parsednotifications = json.parse(notifications); } 

but error "uncaught syntaxerror: unexpected token u" on following line:

parsednotifications = json.parse(notifications); 

why error occur?

you wrote:

alert(document.getelementbyid('notifications')); // prints: object htmlspanelement 

in comment, htmlspanelement clue something's wrong. apparently, page has <span> id same of hidden <input>, document.getelementbyid finds wrong element, , value returns undefined because <span> doesn't have value.

change id of <span> other "notifications", , code should work.