var formatJson = function(json, options) { var reg = null, formatted = '', pad = 0, PADDING = '';  //one can also use '/t' or a different number of spaces // optional settings options = options || {}; // remove newline where '{' or '[' follows ':' options.newlineAfterColonIfBeforeBraceOrBracket = (options.newlineAfterColonIfBeforeBraceOrBracket === true) ? true : false; // use a space after a colon options.spaceAfterColon = (options.spaceAfterColon === false) ? false : true; // begin formatting... if (typeof json !== 'string') { // make sure we start with the JSON as a string json = JSON.stringify(json); } else { // is already a string, so parse and re-stringify //in order to remove extra whitespace json = JSON.parse(json); json = JSON.stringify(json); } // add newline before and after curly braces reg = /([/{/}])/g; json = json.replace(reg, '/r/n$1/r/n'); // add newline before and after square brackets reg = /([/[/]])/g; json = json.replace(reg, '/r/n$1/r/n'); // add newline after comma reg = /(/,)/g; json = json.replace(reg, '$1/r/n'); // remove multiple newlines reg = /(/r/n/r/n)/g; json = json.replace(reg, '/r/n'); // remove newlines before commas reg = //r/n/,/g; json = json.replace(reg, ','); // optional formatting... if (!options.newlineAfterColonIfBeforeBraceOrBracket) {  reg = //:/r/n/{/g; json = json.replace(reg, ':{'); reg = //:/r/n/[/g; json = json.replace(reg, ':['); } if (options.spaceAfterColon) {   reg = //:/g; json = json.replace(reg, ': '); } $.each(json.split('/r/n'), function(index, node) { var i = 0,  indent = 0,  padding = ''; if (node.match(//{$/) || node.match(//[$/)) {  indent = 1; } else if (node.match(//}/) || node.match(//]/)) {  if (pad !== 0) {  pad -= 1;  } } else {  indent = 0; } for (i = 0; i < pad; i++) {  padding += PADDING; } formatted += padding + node + '/r/n'; pad += indent; }); return formatted;};