JSON object with array header - php

Question

this question comes from the posting I found here:
DataTables Multiple Tables from Multiple JSON Arrays
I'd like to know the simplest and best way to generate the JSON below. I can see the pattern is 'JSON object -> Array Header -> Array -> JSON object' but I do not know how to do this in PHP, from a mySQLi query result. I imagine having a mySQL table with a 'policies' and 'services' column so the query might look something like:
Select name, id, score, type from myTable where type = 'policies' and
type = 'services'
And the result would come back something like:
name id score type
A 1 0 policies
B 2 0 services
But then how would I take that query and generate this JSON in php?
{
"Policies": [
{
"name": "A",
"id": "1",
"score": "0"
}
],
"Services": [
{
"name": "B",
"id": "2",
"score": "0"
}
]
}
Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Start by creating the new empty array.
Then, iterate through the result and add it in the correct sub-array:
$new = [];
foreach ($result as $item) {
// Uppercase the first character
$type = ucfirst($item['type']);
if (!isset($new[$type])) {
// This type doesn't exist in the new array yet, let's create it.
$new[$type] = [];
}
// Add the item
$new[$type][] = $item;
}
// Output it as json
echo json_encode($new, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
The above code will also work if new types are added to the database.
PS. The JSON_PRETTY_PRINT argument is just to make the json string a bit more readable while developing. When everything looks good, you can remove it.