Need help sorting this logic with JSON Pretty Print - php

Question

Trying to pretty print json, and works fine, cept, seems to add an extra line when printing out an array of objects between each object array. Could use some help on the logic of this as I haven't touched this in awhile...
code for pretty printing it is as follows:
public function pretty_print($json_data, $line_numbers = true)
{
$return = '';
$space = 0;
$flag = false;
$json_data = trim($json_data);
$line = 1;
if (!empty($json_data)) {
if (!empty($line_numbers))
$return .= '<div class="line" data-line-number="' . $line . '">';
//loop for iterating the full json data
for($counter = 0; $counter < strlen($json_data); $counter++)
{
//Checking ending second and third brackets
if ($json_data[$counter] == '}' || $json_data[$counter] == ']')
{
$space--;
$line++;
$return .= !empty($line_numbers) ? '</div><div class="line" data-line-number="' . $line . '">' : PHP_EOL;
$return .= str_repeat(' ', ($space*4));
}
//Checking for double quote(“) and comma (,)
if ($json_data[$counter] == '"' && ((!empty($counter) && $json_data[$counter-1] == ',') || ($counter > 1 && $json_data[$counter-2] == ',')))
{
$line++;
$return .= !empty($line_numbers) ? '</div><div class="line" data-line-number="' . $line . '">' : PHP_EOL;
$return .= str_repeat(' ', ($space*4));
}
if ($json_data[$counter] == '"' && !$flag)
{
if ( (!empty($counter) && $json_data[$counter-1] == ':') || ($counter > 1 && $json_data[$counter-2] == ':' ))
$return .= ' <span class="json-property">';
else
$return .= '<span class="json-value">';
}
$return .= $json_data[$counter];
//Checking conditions for adding closing span tag
if ($json_data[$counter] == '"' && $flag) {
$return .= '</span>';
}
if ($json_data[$counter] == '"')
$flag = !$flag;
//Checking starting second and third brackets
if ($json_data[$counter] == '{' || $json_data[$counter] == '[')
{
$space++;
$line++;
$return .= !empty($line_numbers) ? '</div><div class="line" data-line-number="' . $line . '">' : PHP_EOL;
$return .= str_repeat(' ', ($space*4));
}
}
if (!empty($line_numbers))
$return .= '</div>';
}
return !empty($return) ? trim($return) : json_encode(json_decode($json_data, true), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
}
But seems to parse the json with an extra <div class="line" data-line-number=""></div>
Here's an image of this and would like to get rid of the extra space between objects of the array in here if possible. Any help here, would really appreciate it.

Answer 1

Why the heck are you manually parsing JSON? That code is going to be incredibly difficult to reason about and maintain, especially if you come back to it later when a bug almost inevitably presents itself.
Rather than taking the difficult approach, consider instead doing the following:
1. Reformat the JSON so that it suits your needs. In this case, for example, you prefer to keep the closing and ending brackets of objects on the same line, rather than on separate lines.
2. Split the already-pretty-formatted JSON into separate lines.
3. Wrap the individual lines of your JSON in HTML.
4. Re-join the lines to get your final HTML.
function prettyWrapJson($json_data, $line_numbers = true) {
// Ensure that our JSON is in pretty format.
$json_data = json_encode(json_decode($json_data, true), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
// Modify the formatting so that adjacent closing and opening curly braces are on the same line.
// Note: we can add a similar line if we want to do the same for square brackets.
$json_data = preg_replace('/},\n +{/s', '},{', $json_data);
$line_number = 1;
// Coerce a boolean value.
$line_numbers = !empty($line_numbers);
// Split into an array of separate lines.
$json_lines = explode("\n", $json_data);
// Wrap the individual lines.
$json_lines = array_map(function($json_line) use ($line_numbers, &$line_number) {
// Check if this line contains a property name.
if(preg_match('/^( +"[^"]+"):/', $json_line, $matches)) {
// Similar result to explode(':', $json_line), but safer since the colon character may exist somewhere else in the line.
$parts = array($matches[1], substr($json_line, strlen($matches[1]) + 1));
// Wrap the property in a span, but keep the spaces outside of it.
$parts[0] = preg_replace('/^( +)/', '$1<span class="json-property">', $parts[0]) . '</span>';
// We only want to wrap the other part of the string if it's a value, not an opening brace.
if(strpos($parts[1], '{') === false && strpos($parts[1], '[') === false) {
// Similarly, wrap the value in a span, but keep the spaces outside of it.
$parts[1] = preg_replace('/^( +)/', '$1<span class="json-value">', $parts[1]) . '</span>';
}
// Re-join the string parts with the colon we stripped out earlier.
$json_line = implode(':', $parts);
}
// Finally, we can wrap the line with a line number div if needed.
if($line_numbers) {
$json_line = '<div class="line" data-line-number="' . ($line_number++) . '">' . $json_line . '</div>';
}
return $json_line;
}, $json_lines);
// Re-join the lines and return the result.
return implode("\n", $json_lines);
}
You may need to tinker with it slightly to get it formatted exactly to your preferences, but this should be much easier for you to work with.