Encoding a SELECT statement as JSON, iOS issues - php

Question

I am trying to JSON encode the results of my SQL SELECT statement using PHP and am unsure if I am formatting my array correctly before encoding.
My PHP code is:
$stmt = $this->db->prepare('SELECT CLINIC.clinic_name AS "clinicname" FROM CLINIC ORDER BY CLINIC.clinic_name ASC');
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($clinicname);
$test = array();
while($stmt->fetch()){
$tempArray = array('clinicname' => $clinicname);
array_push($test, $tempArray);
}
$stmt->close();
// Return clinics, encoded with JSON
header('Content-type: application/json');
$json = json_encode($test);
echo $json;
The result of this array creation and encoding is:
[{"clinicname":"Bangor"},{"clinicname":"Belfast"},{"clinicname":"Crumlin"},{"clinicname":"Londonderry"}]
So I have an array of arrays.
Will this be okay for sending as JSON? All the examples I see seem to be a single array. Am I correct so far?
And then, regarding iOS, will the received object be a NSDictionary or an NSArray?
Any help or feedback on the above would be greatly received.
Matt.

Answer 1

Yes, your JSON is properly formatted. Next time you can use a JSON validator to check.
Also, some details on json_encoding.
A [] represents an array and {} represents an object.

Answer 2

In iOS, if this is the result from an http request, it will be of type NSString, and then need to be parsed by something like:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Foundation/Reference/NSJSONSerialization_Class/Reference/Reference.html
which then converts it to NSArray, NSDictionary NSString, etc.

Answer 3

Yes, you can send an array of arrays, and you can acces like the follow way:
$response = json_decode($response,true);
foreach ($response as $resp)
{
echo "<br>";
print_r($resp);
}
json example:
[{"id":"38","first_name":"prueba","second_name":"example","first_surname":"prueba","second_surname":"GONZALEZ","email":"x#x.net","network_login":"x.x","pos_name":"x x","position":"1","active":"1"},{"vhur":"292","first_name":"c","second_name":"example","first_surname":"example","second_surname":null,"email":"example#example.com","network_login":"example.example","pos_name":"example example","position":"2","active":"1"}]