Converting php object to json - php

Question

I've a php object that I want to convert to the following json format.
All the data values are object via a php object in the format:
Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [id] => 2
[s1] => 1485
[name] => 1485
[credit] => ''
[caption] => ''
)
)
I'm trying to group the credit, caption, etc. under child. Also, I'm unable to get the [ after date in the json format.
{
"mydata":
{
"name":Name,
"type":"default",
"date": [
{
"s1":"1485",
"name":"1485",
"child":
{
"credit":"",
"caption":""
}
}]
}
}
Currently, my code looks like:
foreach ($hits as $hit) {
$data->mydata->date->s1 = $hit->s1;
$data->mydata->date->name = $hit->name;
$data->mydata->date->credit = $hit->credit;
$data->mydata->date->caption = $hit->caption;
}
$a = json_encode($data);

Answer 1

set $date->mydata->date to an array and you will get the []
And why not making more nested structures?

Answer 2

The JSON format you're looking at shows that date is an array (the brackets are array notation in javascript), so:
<?php
$var = array(
'mydata' => array(
'name' => 'Name',
'type' => 'default',
'date' => array(
array(
's1' => 1485,
'name' => '1485',
'child' => array(
'credit' => '',
'caption' => '',
),
),
),
),
);
print json_encode($var);
prints out:
{
"mydata": {
"name": "Name",
"type": "default",
"date": [
{
"s1": 1485,
"name": "1485",
"child": {
"credit": "",
"caption": ""
}
}
]
}
}
No need to try and add stdClass instances or anything like that in PHP. Just build out a nice clean array and JSON encode will convert to object properties and arrays where necessary.