Support json with comments

[unional]

Currently, if there are comments in json, this extension will format it incorrectly. Some properties double-quote will be gone.

It is true that JSON should not have comments on it by specification, but it would be good to support it.

For example, .eslintrc.json do support comments, also tslint.json

[richie5um]

Thank you for raising this issue.

This extension converts to the selected text to JSON, and then sorts as it serialises it back. As such, sorting JSON that includes comments is a problem. I'll investigate to see if there is an alternative solution, but, I suspect there won't be.

[unional]

You can consider doing it like this:
https://github.com/palantir/tslint/blob/master/src/configuration.ts#L122-L128
https://github.com/palantir/tslint/blob/master/src/utils.ts#L75

[richie5um]

Thanks. I was hoping I might be able to to retain the comments - but, this'll do as a great solution for now. Many thanks.

[unional]

You are right that the code I linked to does not retain comments.
One way to get around it is to do it two passes:
When stripping the comments, record their location related to the JSON key/value.
Then after parse->stringify Find the JSON key/value index and inject the comments back in.

Just a thought.

[nonoroazoro]

@richie5um I used node-jsonc-parser in my VSCode extension to manipulate JSON with comments, maybe it will help.

[richie5um]

Thanks. Will take a look.

[jaymegordo]

+1 for this, I always have comments in settings files, would love it if they could be preserved!

[GBrachetta]

Definitely +1 this. I have a big VSCode settings.json with comments (ca 700 lines) and would love to be able to sort it and keep the comments.
I believe it's a common scenario to use the extension.

[richie5um]

I would love to be able to get this working, but every time I look at it I come across two problems; I can't seem to solve it when comments need to stay relative to their position (i.e. no point keeping the comment in the same place, if the property it was relevant to has moved position), I can't seem to find the time to spend more time on it :).

[GBrachetta]

I understand. I wonder if comments could be transformed as dummy key-value pairs during the parsing process and transformed back after sorting. Well, maybe that's nonsense, just an idea :)

[richie5um]

... and, as if by magic, I think I may have found a solution. It's gonna take me some time to test/investigate, but, looks like it should work. :)

PS: I'd wondered the same, but wasn't sure how to reliably achieve that - definitely not a nonsense idea!! But, I think I've got a way forward :).

[GBrachetta]

Yay!!!

[richie5um]

It works......

[GBrachetta]

That's amazing, looking forward to the release! Thank you!! Finally settings.json easy to navigate! :)