PHP Convert string response to an Array from an API - php

Question

I have the following value which is returned via API :
[{"message":"No transactions found"}]
this information comes back as a string and I would like to convert it to a JSON or an array.
I have the following two options :
$decoded_msg = json_decode($mpesa_offline_status,TRUE);
echo $decoded_msg['message'];
which return a warning message : Message: Illegal string offset 'message' and this option also:
$decoded_msg = json_decode($mpesa_offline_status,TRUE);
echo $decoded_msg->message;
and I get the following error :
Message: Trying to get property 'message' of non-object
how can I approach this?

Answer 1

You have an array of messages, so you cannot access 'message' at the top level.
$mpesa_offline_status = '[{"message":"No transactions found"}]';
$decoded_msg = json_decode($mpesa_offline_status, true);
var_dump($decoded_msg[0]['message']);
you have to access a valid index. Same with that:
$mpesa_offline_status = '[{"message":"No transactions found"}]';
$decoded_msg = json_decode($mpesa_offline_status, false);
var_dump($decoded_msg[0]->message);

Answer 2

Having [] with this API response means, when you use json_decode() this will generate a multi dimensional array, here [] will be converted into 0 index and message will be associated with 0 index something like:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[message] => No transactions found
)
)
For this if you want to access message index which inside the 0 index, you can access as like:
<?
$string = '[{"message":"No transactions found"}]';
$decode = json_decode($string,true);
echo $decode[0]['message']; // No transactions found
?>
Side Note:
Message: Illegal string offset 'message' error doesn't mean, to switch on to property instead of array, this message means, you are trying to access a string value which is an array.