Error converting Json string to array of objects PHP - php

Question

I made a post in a form converting my javascript localstorage to a post request. From there I tried to decode my json string to make an object in PHP.
How my php code looks before I echo it
$cart_items = $_POST['cart_items'];
$cart_items = json_encode($cart_items);
$array_test = json_decode($cart_items);
print_r($array_test);
What it returns in browser
[{\"id\":83494890,\"title\":\"2020 Hino 358\",\"partType\":\"Bumpers\",\"price\":100,\"stockNumber\":12313131312,\"thumbImg\":\"/jOIY91KhEby8_f.jpg\",\"permalink\":\"/part-description/?part=83494890\",\"maxQuantity\":1,\"requestedQuantity\":\"3\"}
,{\"id\":83493833,\"title\":\"2009 Freightliner 5020080\",\"partType\":\"ABS Modulator Valves\",\"price\":150,\"stockNumber\":\"P-1211111111157\",\"thumbImg\":\"/OOjQbsi6p8kX_f.jpg\",\"permalink\":\"/part-description/?part=83493833\",\"maxQuantity\":1,\"requestedQuantity\":\"1\"}]
I know that typically when seeing json data there isn't forward slashes everywhere. I tried to json_decode into an array rather than an object, then make a foreach for each object inside. But I got this error returned "Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"
How do I make this json string convert to an array of objects? Thank you

Answer 1

The problem I was having was when I was getting the $_POST[] it was using PHP's "magic quotes" which was giving me improper format for my json. That being said, after disabling this, it removes the slashes.

Answer 2

It looks like $_POST['cart_items'] already contains JSON. So you just need to decode it, not encode it first.
$array_test = json_decode($_POST['cart_items'], true);
print_r($array_test);
But it's actually encoded twice, that's why it has escaped quotes, so you need to call json_decode() twice. But it's missing the double quotes around the whole thing, and the embedded newline is not valid.
The following works:
<?php
$cart_items = '"[{\"id\":83494890,\"title\":\"2020 Hino 358\",\"partType\":\"Bumpers\",\"price\":100,\"stockNumber\":12313131312,\"thumbImg\":\"/jOIY91KhEby8_f.jpg\",\"permalink\":\"/part-description/?part=83494890\",\"maxQuantity\":1,\"requestedQuantity\":\"3\"},{\"id\":83493833,\"title\":\"2009 Freightliner 5020080\",\"partType\":\"ABS Modulator Valves\",\"price\":150,\"stockNumber\":\"P-1211111111157\",\"thumbImg\":\"/OOjQbsi6p8kX_f.jpg\",\"permalink\":\"/part-description/?part=83493833\",\"maxQuantity\":1,\"requestedQuantity\":\"1\"}]"';
$array_test = json_decode(json_decode($cart_items));
print_r($array_test);
I suggest you find the code that's sending the cart_item POST parameter and fix it so it doesn't do all this extra encoding.