Unable to access array element with json_decode - php

Question

I have used json_decode to get an array from a JSON response:
$result = (json_decode($trends,true));
which gives me the following (I haven't included all of the EstablishmentDetail array results)
Array ( [FHRSEstablishment] => Array ( [Header] => Array ( [#text] => [ExtractDate] => 2012-05-28 [ItemCount] => 5 [ReturnCode] => Success ) [EstablishmentCollection] => Array ( [EstablishmentDetail] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [FHRSID] => 248659 [LocalAuthorityBusinessID] => INS/06/06179 [BusinessName] => Ancient Raj [BusinessType] => Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen [BusinessTypeID] => 1 [AddressLine1] => 26 North Lane, Canterbury, [PostCode] => CT2 7EE [RatingValue] => 3 [RatingKey] => fhrs_3_en-GB [RatingDate] => 2010-11-18 [LocalAuthorityCode] => 180 [LocalAuthorityName] => Canterbury City [Scores] => [SchemeType] => FHRS [Geocode] => )
which I thought I' be able to use a foreach to get to the BusinessName:
foreach ($result->FHRSEstablishment->EstablishmentCollection->EstablishmentDetail as $detail){
echo $detail['BusinessName'];
}
but I'm not getting any results.

Answer 1

The problem is that you're accessing your $result as an object:
$result->FHRSEstablishment
but when you're calling json_decode with the second parameter set to true, it's returning an associative array, which you should access as:
$result['FHRSEstablishment']['EstablishmentCollection'] //...
If you want to be able to access your $result with object notation, you should define it as:
$result = json_decode($trends) //without 2nd parameter = true