Encode/Decode Json with datetime objects symfony php - php

Question

I have a array with datetime objects .The array lookks like as follows
$advanceresult= array:68 [▼
"contact" => array:1 [▶]
"policyBranch" => ArrayCollection {#38322 ▶}
"assuranceContact" => ArrayCollection {#38337 ▶}
"info" => null
"withSurplusShare" => false
"withSurpassedSurplusShare" => false
"withoutPremiumInvoice" => false
"withoutPremiumInvoiceRange" => array:2 [▼
"start" => DateTime #1577833200 {#38339 ▶}
"end" => DateTime #1609369200 {#38346 ▶}
]
"showPoliciesFromArchivedContacts" => false
]
The withoutPremiumInvoiceRange key value is a datetime object.
My problem is when i encode this array as follows
$advanceresultencode=json_encode($advanceresult);
json_decode($advanceresultencode, true);
and decode it back the datetime objects is looking like as follows
enter code here
"withoutPremiumInvoiceRange" => array:2 [▼
"start" => array:3 [▼
"date" => "2020-01-01 00:00:00.000000"
"timezone_type" => 3
"timezone" => "Europe/Zurich"
]
"end" => array:3 [▶]
]
I need the data to datetime object.Can anyone help me acheiving this.

Answer 1

You can't have the datetime without an extra step. You can change the encode process (more info here: Change output of DateTime in json_encode) but same issue on json_decode.
Here is what you can do on json_decode :
<?php
// Here your json as string
$json = ...;
$jsonDecoded = json_decode($json);
$jsonDecoded['withoutPremiumInvoiceRange']['start'] = DateTime::createFromFormat(
'Y-m-d H:i:s.u',
$jsonDecoded['withoutPremiumInvoiceRange']['start']['date'],
new DateTimeZone($jsonDecoded['withoutPremiumInvoiceRange']['start']['timezone'])
);