AJAX does not recognize json array - php

Question

Ajax does not want to recognize my $google['cities'] when called as data.cities.
The output is: 12 undefined undefined.
It works well (output are database records) if i remove $google['number']=12, and define database array just as $google[]=$row.
Any ideas?
PHP:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","");
if(!$con) {
die("Connection Error: ".mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("avtost", $con);
$pasteta = $_POST["white"];
$places = mysql_query("SELECT sDo FROM bstop WHERE sOd='$pasteta'");
mysql_close($con);
$google=array();
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($places)) {
$google["cities"]=$row;
}
$google['number']=12;
if (mysql_num_rows($places)>0) {
echo json_encode($google);
} else { echo 'Ni rezultatov';}
?>
JQuery:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#submit').click(function(){
var white = $('#white').val();
$.ajax({
type:"POST",
url:"page.php",
dataType:'json',
data:{white:white},
success: function(data){
var result='';
$.each(data.cities, function(i,e) {
result += '<div>'+e.sDo+'</div>';
});
$("#res").append(data.number);
$("#res").append(result);
}
});
});
});
</script>

Answer 1

you are overwriting the cities key in $google every time you loop for a row in $places.
you can use:
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($places)) {
$google[]=$row;
}
$google[]=12;
and then simply grab the last value value of the array if you want to get the number key, or just pass the number as a separate variable $number.

Answer 2

Some tips:
1) you should be using prepared statements to secure your code (mysqli prepared). This will give you something like:
// connect to database and check it
// ...
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare('SELECT sDo FROM bstop WHERE sOd=?');
$stmt->bind_param('s',$pasteta);
$stmt->bind_result($sDo);
$stmt->execute();
while($stmt->fetch())
$google['cities'][] = $sDo;
$google['number'] = 12;
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();
// ...
2) Improve your variable, table and column names. They are a bit confusing.
3) Instead of returning 'Ni rezultatov', you should return JSON. Such as, {"status":"FAILED"}, subsequently returning {"status":"OK", ... } for successful requests.

Answer 3

I solved it myself:
PHP:
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($places)){
$google['cities'][]=$row;
}
$google['number']=12;
echo json_encode($google);