How do I make a good JSON output from existing arrays? - php

Question

An app developer would like to receive data from my API in the following JSON format:
{"response":1,"values":[{"brid": 31,"description": "Painter"},{"brid":33,"description":"Plumber"}]}
I managed to produce this:
{"result":[{"response":1},{"brids":["1","2","3","4","5"]},{"descriptions":["Plumber","Carpenter","Electrician","Mason","Painter"]}]}
By using this code:
$result=array();
$result[]['response']=intval(1);
$result[]['brids']=$brids;
$result[]['descriptions']=$descriptions;
$response["result"]=$result;
echo json_encode($response);
And I managed to produce this:
{"response":1,"0":{"brid":1,"description":"Plumber"},"1":{"brid":2,"description":"Carpenter"},"2":{"brid":3,"description":"Electrician"},"3":{"brid":4,"description":"Mason"},"4":{"brid":5,"description":"Painter"}}
by using this code:
$test=array();
$test['response']=intval(1);
for ($i=0;$i<count($brids);$i++)
{
$value=array();
$value['brid']=intval($brids[$i]);
$value['description']=$descriptions[$i];
$test[]=$value;
}
echo json_encode($test);
How do I satisfy the developer?
Albert

Answer 1

Loop over one of the arrays (both have to be of the same size) a foreach is simplest using the form that captures the key $i in your code.
Build a temp array containing the inner objects
Then simpy add them to the outer array
$descriptions = ["Plumber","Carpenter","Electrician","Mason","Painter"];
$brids = [31,32,33,34,35];
$out['response'] = 1;
foreach ( $brids as $i => $brid ){
$t = ['brid' => $brid, 'description' => $descriptions[$i]];
$out['values'][] = $t;
}
echo json_encode($out);
RESULT
{
"response":1,
"values":[
{"brid":31,"description":"Plumber"},
{"brid":32,"description":"Carpenter"},
{"brid":33,"description":"Electrician"},
{"brid":34,"description":"Mason"},
{"brid":35,"description":"Painter"}
]
}

Answer 2

You were almost there. You just need to wrap your values array into a key in existing response.
$test=array();
$test['response']=intval(1);
$testValues=array()
for ($i=0;$i<count($brids);$i++)
{
$value=array();
$value['brid']=intval($brids[$i]);
$value['description']=$descriptions[$i];
$testValues[]=$value;
}
$test['values']=$testValues;
echo json_encode($test);

Answer 3

you're pretty close, this should work:
$test = [
'response' => 1,
'values' => []
];
for ($i=0;$i<count($brids);$i++){
$test['values'][] = (object) [
'brid' => intval($brids[$i]),
'description' => $descriptions[$i]
];
}
echo json_encode($test);
so instead of pushing directly to $test with $test[], you push to its value attribute
Be aware that $descriptions[$i] inside the for it's a bit risky, there might be few elements in $descriptions than in $birds (at least for the code you have provided)