Array turn to json using php - php

Question

need your help on this one...
I'm trying to create a code that will get a .txt file and convert all text content to json.
here's my sample code:
<?php
// make your required checks
$fp = 'SampleMessage01.txt';
// get the contents of file in array
$conents_arr = file($fp, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);
foreach($conents_arr as $key=>$value)
{
$conents_arr[$key] = rtrim($value, "\r");
}
$json_contents = json_encode($conents_arr, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);
echo $json_contents;
?>
I already got the result when i tried to echo the $json_contents
["Sample Material 1","tRAINING|ENDING","01/25/2018 9:37:00 AM","639176882315,639176882859","Y,Y","~"]
but when I tried to echo using like this method $json_contents[0]
I only got per character result.
Code
Result
hope you can help me on this one..
thank you

Answer 1

As PHP.net says
"Returns a string containing the JSON representation of the supplied value."
As you are using $json_contents[0] this will return the first char of the json string.
You can do this
$conents_arr[0]
Or convert your json string to PHP array using
$json_array = json_decode($json_contents, true);
echo $json_array[0];

Answer 2

It is happening because $json_contents is a string. It might be json string but it's string so string properties will apply here and hence when you echo $json_contents[0] it gives you first character of the string. You can either decode the encoded json string to object like below:
$json = json_decode($json_contents);
echo $json[0];
or echo it before the json_encode:
echo $conents_arr[0];
$json_contents = json_encode($conents_arr, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);

Answer 3

json_encode() function takes an array as input and convert it to json string.
echo $json_contents; just print out the string.
if you want to access it you have to decode the JSON string to array.
//this convert array to json string
$json_contents = json_encode($conents_arr, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);
//this convert json string to an array.
$json_contents = json_decode($json_contents, true);
//now you can access it
echo $json_contents[0];