associative array in JS

hi all,
i have written an API in html5. and this is how i load it

HTML Code:

---

$(document).ready(function(){
oChart= new _chart("canvas4");
oChart.props.values= = [{ Name: "Rob", max:33, actual : 10, actual2: 15, color: "red" },
                          { Name: "Carole", max: 28, actual : 9, actual2: 17,color: "greenyellow" },
                          { Name: "David", max: 36, actual : 16, actual2: 8,color: "cyan" }                                                                                           
                                                  ];;
oChart.refresh();
});

---

the dilema is, figures in the values array should be updated every second, and i can do that by calling ajax method that returns a tring in the format
[color][{ Name: "Rob", max:33, actual : 10, actual2: 15, color: "red" },
{ Name: "Carole", max: 28, actual : 9, actual2: 17,color: "greenyellow" },
{ Name: "David", max: 36, actual : 16, actual2: 8,color: "cyan" }
];[/color]
how to evaluate the returned string into the values array ??
thanks in advance ..

If you were to put quotes around the keys, it would become valid JSON, and then you could use JSON.parse to evaluate the string.
Otherwise, you're limited to eval, which is not the best option because it parses and executes more than just data structures.

Thanks, eval() worked for me.. any ideas how to display data based on mouse position over the canvas
here is an example: http://www.koolchart.com/demo/
check out Barchart

In JS objects are also associative arrays or hashes.

theStatus.Home

can also be read.

theStatus['Home']

You can access a form by performing these DOM calls:

document.forms['theForm']
document.forms.theForm