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));