Why isn't as3 handing my arrays in JSON? - arrays

Question

Here I have this json file.
{
"BnUs5hQZkJWLU9jGlpx9Ifq5ocf2" : {
"bio" : "Your bio!\r",
"birthday" : "Date of Birth?",
"location" : "Location?",
"markerBorder" : 1.5542403222038021E7,
"markerColor" : 8222122.31461079,
"name" : "NamesName?",
"profilePrivacy" : 2,
"sex" : "Gender?",
"privacy" : 2,
"points" : {
"-Kc7lfJk3XbPlNyk-wIR" : {
"address" : "dsfsdfasfsfd",
"description" : "status/desription",
"latitude" : 35.2,
"longitude" : -80.7,
"mediaTargets" : "none",
"pub" : false,
"timestamp" : 1486205926658
},
"aaa" : "aaa"
}
}
}
Those random string of charactors are automatically made when I use firebase.
In this scenario, there might be more "points" I will have to take account for. So when I reference points, I should be talking to an array since it contains both "-Kc7lfJk3XbPlNyk-wIR" (an array) and "aaa" (a string).
So why do I get a type error when trying to convert parsedObject.points into an array?
var parsedObject:Object = JSON.parse(e.target.data);
var multiArray:Array = parsedObject.points;
TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert Object#5c16089 to Array.
I'm basically trying to do the opposite of what this guy is doing.
Edit: I see in the notes that it only handles string, numbers and Boolean values..
I managed to work around it by adding a "parent" node in the object that duplicates the same value as the name of the entire node so I can reference it in the script. Is there a better way to go about this? Seems pretty redundant.
var parsedObject:Object = JSON.parse(e.target.data);
var myPoints:Object = parsedObject["points"];
//Get all trek names
for each (var key:Object in myPoints)
{
trace("Key = " + key.parent);
trace(parsedObject.treks[key.parent].latitude) //Returns -80.7
}

Answer 1

Because Array is a subclass of Object.
var A:Array = new Array();
var B:Object = new Object();
trace(A is Array); // true
trace(A is Object); // true
trace(B is Array); // false
trace(B is Object); // true
B = new Array(); // nothing wrong here
A = new Object(); // throws exception
So, you might want to tell what kind of data you want to obtain in the Array form from the parsedObject.points Object to proceed.
Alternately, that is how you get actual Array from JSON string:
{
"list": [1,2,3,4,5,6]
}

Answer 2

Looks like it's correctly being parsed by JSON.parse to me.
Arrays in JSON use square brackets, braces are interpreted as objects.
You'd only expect an Array from JSON.parse if you had
"points": [
...
]
whereas this is an Object:
"points": {
...
}
I suggest you look into why you aren't getting [] from your source.