convert POST array data to json format - php

Question

I'm using POST Method and I want the PHP script to return the data in JSON format
//data 1:
<input type="text" value="1" name="id[]">
<input type="text" value="aa" name="name[]">
<input type="text" value="cc" name="stuff[]">
//data 2:
<input type="text" value="2" name="id[]">
<input type="text" value="dd" name="name[]">
<input type="text" value="ff" name="stuff[]">
i want result be like :
{id:1,name:"aa",stuff:"cc"},{id:2,name:"dd",stuff:"ff"}
I understand that if we use json_encode($_POST,true) i will have :
{"id":["1","2"],"name":["aa","dd"],"stuff":["cc","ff"]}
i can do that with js using get method not post
id[]=1&name[]=aa&stuff=cc&id[]=2&name[]=dd&stuff[]=ff
Check my solution
https://jsfiddle.net/cqvny3th/
Or what if we generate url from the post method using http_build_query, result is :
id[]=1&id[]=2&name[]=aa&name[]=dd&stuff=cc&stuff[]=ff
But my solution works only with :
id[]=1&name[]=aa&stuff=cc&id[]=2&name[]=dd&stuff[]=ff
Regards

Answer 1

Definitely less elegant than #Don't Panic's solution, but in case you want/need to keep your name attributes as they are, this will work:
//prep
$repeated_post_vars = ['id', 'name', 'stuff'];
$arr = [];
//find which column has the most values, just in case they're not all equal
$num_items = max(array_map(function($col) {
return !empty($_POST[$col]) ? count($_POST[$col]) : 0;
}, $repeated_post_vars));
//iterate over value sets
for ($g=0; $g<$num_items; $g++) {
foreach($repeated_post_vars as $col)
$tmp[$col] = !empty($_POST[$col][$g]) ? $_POST[$col][$g] : null;
$arr[] = $tmp;
}
So if $_POST on submit looks like:
[
'id' => [1, 2],
'name' => ['foo', 'bar'],
'stuff' => [3]
];
The code produces:
[{"id":1,"name":"foo","stuff":3},{"id":2,"name":"bar","stuff":null}]

Answer 2

Rename your inputs, if you can.
<input type="text" value="1" name="data1[id]">
<input type="text" value="aa" name="data1[name]">
<input type="text" value="cc" name="data1[stuff]">
<input type="text" value="2" name="data2[id]">
<input type="text" value="dd" name="data2[name]">
<input type="text" value="ff" name="data2[stuff]">
That will group the data properly. Use array_values before json_encode so you'll get an array of objects rather than an object.
echo json_encode(array_values($_GET));

Answer 3

Could you do something like this?
$list = array();
for ($i=0; $i<count($_POST['id']); $i++) {
$item = new stdClass();
foreach ($_POST as $key => $values)
$item->{$key} = $values[$i];
$list[] = $item;
}
print json_encode( $list );