How to convert FormData (HTML5 object) to JSON

How do I convert the entries from a HTML5 FormData object to JSON?

The solution should not use jQuery. Also, it should not simply serialize the entire FormData object, but only its key/value entries.

You could also use forEach on the FormData object directly:

var object = {};
formData.forEach(function(value, key){
    object[key] = value;
});
var json = JSON.stringify(object);

UPDATE:

And for those who prefer the same solution with ES6 arrow functions:

var object = {};
formData.forEach((value, key) => object[key] = value);
var json = JSON.stringify(object);

UPDATE 2:

And for those who want support for multi select lists or other form elements with multiple values (since there are so many comments below the answer regarding this issue I will add a possible solution):

var object = {};
formData.forEach((value, key) => {
    // Reflect.has in favor of: object.hasOwnProperty(key)
    if(!Reflect.has(object, key)){
        object[key] = value;
        return;
    }
    if(!Array.isArray(object[key])){
        object[key] = [object[key]];    
    }
    object[key].push(value);
});
var json = JSON.stringify(object);

Here a Fiddle demonstrating the use of this method with a simple multi select list.

UPDATE 3:

As a side note for those ending up here, in case the purpose of converting the form data to json is to send it through a XML HTTP request to a server you can send the FormData object directly without converting it. As simple as this:

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open("POST", "http://example.com/submitform.php");
request.send(formData);

See also Using FormData Objects on MDN for reference:

UPDATE 4:

As mentioned in one of the comments below my answer the JSON stringify method won't work out of the box for all types of objects. For more information on what types are supported I would like to refer to the Description section in the MDN documentation of JSON.stringify.

In the description is also mentioned that:

If the value has a toJSON() method, it's responsible to define what data will be serialized.

This means that you can supply your own toJSON serialization method with logic for serializing your custom objects. Like that you can quickly and easily build serialization support for more complex object trees.

In 2019, this kind of task became super-easy.

JSON.stringify(Object.fromEntries(formData));

Object.fromEntries: Supported in Chrome 73+, Firefox 63+, Safari 12.1

Here's a way to do it in a more functional style, without the use of a library.

Array.from(formData.entries()).reduce((memo, pair) => ({
  ...memo,
  [pair[0]]: pair[1],
}), {});

Example:

document.getElementById('foobar').addEventListener('submit', (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();

  const formData = new FormData(e.target);
  const data = Array.from(formData.entries()).reduce((memo, pair) => ({
    ...memo,
    [pair[0]]: pair[1],
  }), {});
  document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(data);
});

<form id='foobar'>
  <input name='baz' />
  <input type='submit' />
</form>

<pre id='output'>Input some value and submit</pre>

If you have multiple entries with the same name, for example if you use <SELECT multiple> or have multiple <INPUT type="checkbox"> with the same name, you need to take care of that and make an array of the value. Otherwise you only get the last selected value.

Here is the modern ES6-variant:

function formToJSON( elem ) {
  let output = {};
  new FormData( elem ).forEach(
    ( value, key ) => {
      // Check if property already exist
      if ( Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call( output, key ) ) {
        let current = output[ key ];
        if ( !Array.isArray( current ) ) {
          // If it's not an array, convert it to an array.
          current = output[ key ] = [ current ];
        }
        current.push( value ); // Add the new value to the array.
      } else {
        output[ key ] = value;
      }
    }
  );
  return JSON.stringify( output );
}

Slightly older code (but still not supported by IE11, since it doesn't support ForEach or entries on FormData)

function formToJSON( elem ) {
  var current, entries, item, key, output, value;
  output = {};
  entries = new FormData( elem ).entries();
  // Iterate over values, and assign to item.
  while ( item = entries.next().value )
    {
      // assign to variables to make the code more readable.
      key = item[0];
      value = item[1];
      // Check if key already exist
      if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call( output, key)) {
        current = output[ key ];
        if ( !Array.isArray( current ) ) {
          // If it's not an array, convert it to an array.
          current = output[ key ] = [ current ];
        }
        current.push( value ); // Add the new value to the array.
      } else {
        output[ key ] = value;
      }
    }
    return JSON.stringify( output );
  }

If you need support for serializing nested fields, similar to how PHP handles form fields, you can use the following function

function update(data, keys, value) {
  if (keys.length === 0) {
    // Leaf node
    return value;
  }

  let key = keys.shift();
  if (!key) {
    data = data || [];
    if (Array.isArray(data)) {
      key = data.length;
    }
  }

  // Try converting key to a numeric value
  let index = +key;
  if (!isNaN(index)) {
    // We have a numeric index, make data a numeric array
    // This will not work if this is a associative array 
    // with numeric keys
    data = data || [];
    key = index;
  }
  
  // If none of the above matched, we have an associative array
  data = data || {};

  let val = update(data[key], keys, value);
  data[key] = val;

  return data;
}

function serializeForm(form) {
  return Array.from((new FormData(form)).entries())
    .reduce((data, [field, value]) => {
      let [_, prefix, keys] = field.match(/^([^\[]+)((?:\[[^\]]*\])*)/);

      if (keys) {
        keys = Array.from(keys.matchAll(/\[([^\]]*)\]/g), m => m[1]);
        value = update(data[prefix], keys, value);
      }
      data[prefix] = value;
      return data;
    }, {});
}

document.getElementById('output').textContent = JSON.stringify(serializeForm(document.getElementById('form')), null, 2);

<form id="form">
  <input name="field1" value="Field 1">
  <input name="field2[]" value="Field 21">
  <input name="field2[]" value="Field 22">
  <input name="field3[a]" value="Field 3a">
  <input name="field3[b]" value="Field 3b">
  <input name="field3[c]" value="Field 3c">
  <input name="field4[x][a]" value="Field xa">
  <input name="field4[x][b]" value="Field xb">
  <input name="field4[x][c]" value="Field xc">
  <input name="field4[y][a]" value="Field ya">
  <input name="field5[z][0]" value="Field z0">
  <input name="field5[z][]" value="Field z1">
  <input name="field6.z" value="Field 6Z0">
  <input name="field6.z" value="Field 6Z1">
</form>

<h2>Output</h2>
<pre id="output">
</pre>