Pretty print

I'm trying to write a simple feature script and got caught up on pretty printing maps. I wrote a simple function that parses the returned data and formats it into a readable structure. Below is a listing of the pretty print function.

</code>//pretty print</pre><pre class="CodeBlock"><code>
export function p(s)
{
    var str = splitIntoCharacters(toString(s));
    var i = 0; //indent
    var c; //cnt
    var t = "  "; //tab

    // println(size(str));

    for (c = 0; c < size(str); c += 1)
    {

        if (str[c] == "{")
        {
            print(str[c]);
            print("\n");
            i += 1;
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
        }

        if (str[c] == "[")
        {
            print("\n");
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
            print(str[c]);
            print("\n");
            i += 1;
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
        }

        if (str[c] == "}")
        {
            i -= 1;
            print("\n");
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
            print(str[c]);
        }

        if (str[c] == "]")
        {
            i -= 1;
            print("\n");
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
            print(str[c]);
        }

        if (str[c] == ",")
        {
            print(str[c]);
            print("\n");
            for (var a = 0; a < i; a += 1)
                print(t);
        }

        if (str[c] != "{" && str[c] != "}" && str[c] != "[" && str[c] != "]" && str[c] != "," && str[c] != " ")
            print(str[c]);
    }
    println();
}

Below is displaying 2 simple maps. The 1st is a standard string based representation of the map. The 2nd is the same map except it's pretty printed showing the structure of the map.


Below is a more complex map showing both the simple & the pretty version of the map.


The problem comes when you're trying to access something inside the map. Without pretty print, it's hard to create an accessor to a value contained inside the map.

JSON has the same issues when working with an API. Javascript has many string -> object and object -> string operators and it's easy to create pretty print so you can understand an objects structure.

There may be better ways to understand the structure from a response in the FS console, if there is a better pattern, please let me know.