Json Object to PHP array - not converting - php

Question

I am trying to take a json object stored in a textarea and convert it into a php array. I assign the value of the textarea to variable like $data = $_POST[‘data’] . When I submit the value of the text I use json_decode($data, true) to convert from JSON Object to php array. But nothing happens. It seems like nothing is assigned. How can I achieve the above?
EDIT: I have added quotes and made the suggestion below and is not working: DEMO
PHP
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
$data = $_POST['data'];
$personArray = json_decode($data, true);
print_r($personArray);
}
HTML
<textarea name="data">[{
"firstName": "Jenny",
"lastName": "LaRusso",
"phone": "[phone]",
"alt_phone": "[phone]",
"main1": false,
"main2": true
}, {
"firstName": "Sensei",
"lastName": "Miyagi",
"phone": "[phone]",
"alt_phone": "[phone]",
"main1": true,
"main2": false
}]</textarea>

Answer 1

I think in proper JSON, the keys (like firstName) need also be enclosed in quotes.

Answer 2

Change your PHP code to
if(isset($_POST['data'])) {
$data = $_POST['data'];
$data = stripslashes($data); //Stripslashes removes all backslashes :)
$personArray = json_decode($data, true);
print_r($personArray);
}
Your JSON object should be this way inside the textarea
[{
"firstName": "Jenny",
"lastName": "LaRusso",
"phone": "[phone]",
"alt_phone": "[phone]",
"main1": false,
"main2": true
}, {
"firstName": "Sensei",
"lastName": "Miyagi",
"phone": "[phone]",
"alt_phone": "[phone]",
"main1": true,
"main2": false
}]
Happy Coding :)

Answer 3

There does not seem to be anything wrong with your PHP code.
For debugging, after setting $personArray, try adding these two lines:
var_dump($data);
var_dump($personArray);
This should lead to why you are having trouble.
Here you can see what each return type means(if $returnArray is equal to false): http://php.net/json_decode