Convert PHP to JSON with Nested Array - php

Question

I have a PHP variable I need to convert to JSON string.
I have following PHP code:
$username="admin";
$password="p4ssword";
$name="Administrator";
$email="myname#smsfree4all.com"
$params=compact('username', 'password','name','email', 'groups');
json_encode($params);
This works fine. But what I am not sure about is how do I encode the properties in PHP with nested key value pairs shown below:
{
"username": "admin",
"password": "p4ssword",
"name": "Administrator",
"email": "admin#example.com",
"properties": {
"property": [
{
"#key": "console.rows_per_page",
"#value": "user-summary=8"
},
{
"#key": "console.order",
"#value": "session-summary=1"
}
]
}
}
What is this with # before key value?

Answer 1

Something like this should do it
$username="admin"; //more variables
$params=compact('username' /* more variables to be compacted here*/);
$params["properties"] = [
"property" => [
[
"#key" => "console.rows_per_page",
"#value"=> "user-summary=8"
],
[
"#key"=> "console.order",
"#value"=> "session-summary=1"
]
]
];
echo json_encode($params);
The manual has more examples you can use
Notice that:
A key~value array is encoded into an object
A regular array (array of arrays here) is encoded into an array
Those are all the rules you need to consider to encode any arbitrary object

Answer 2

Something like this perhaps?
$properties = [
'property' => [
['#key' => 'console.rows_per_page', '#value' => 'user-summary=8'],
['#key' => 'console.order', '#value' => 'session-summary=1']
]
];
It's difficult to tell what you're asking.

Answer 3

You can nest in PHP using simple arrays, very similar to JavaScript objects:
$grandparent = array(
"person1" => array(
"name" => "Jeff",
"children" => array(
array("name" => "Matt"),
array("name" => "Bob")
)
),
"person2" => array(
"name" => "Dillan",
"children" => array()
)
);