Removing JSON children by key in PHP - php

Question

My goal is to have a function that can remove a specified json child, which could also be nested inside deeper.
My function looks like this:
private function removeJsonChild(String $jsonKey, String $jsonString)
{
$json = json_decode($jsonString, true);
$arr_index = array();
foreach ($json as $key => $value) {
if (is_array($value)) {
$json[$key] = $this->removeJsonChild($jsonKey, json_encode($value));
}
if ($key == $jsonKey) {
$arr_index[] = $key;
}
}
foreach ($arr_index as $i) {
unset($json[$i]);
}
return json_encode($json);
}
The function would work if i wouldn't check if a $value is an array and then call the function again recursively. But there is the problem i think. In the statement where i assign the return value of the function to $json[$key]. What am i doing wrong?
EDIT: definitely forgot a json_decode. New code looks like this:
private function removeJsonChild(String $jsonKey, String $jsonString)
{
$json = json_decode($jsonString, true);
$arr_index = array();
foreach ($json as $key => $value) {
if (is_array($value)) {
$json[$key] = json_decode($this->removeJsonChild($jsonKey, json_encode($value)));
}
if ($key == $jsonKey) {
$arr_index[] = $key;
}
}
foreach ($arr_index as $i) {
unset($json[$i]);
}
return json_encode($json);
}
EDIT2:
The function works now, however it slightly changes the json schema.
An JSON like this:
[
{
"id": 1,
"name": "oyzadsaigny647"
}
]
now becomes this:
{
"1": {
"id": 1,
"name": "oyzadsaigny647"
}
}

Answer 1

private function removeJsonChild(String $jsonKey, String $jsonString) {
$data = json_decode($jsonString, true);
$data = $this->removeKeyFromArray($key, $data);
return json_encode($data);
}
private function removeKeyFromArray(String $deleteKey, array $data) {
unset($data[$deleteKey]); // No need to check if it exists, it just does nothing in that case
foreach($data as $key => value) {
if(is_array($value)) {
$data[$key] = $this->removeKeyFromArray($deleteKey, $value);
}
}
return $data;
}
NOTE: this will work in case of dictionaries, i.e. array with actual keys. If you have a plain array such as [1, 10, 23, 15] the unset behaviour is wrong, as pointed out by #deceze♦