PHP read and write JSON from file - php

Question

I have the following JSON in a file list.txt:
{
"bgates":{"first":"Bill","last":"Gates"},
"sjobs":{"first":"Steve","last":"Jobs"}
}
How do I add "bross":{"first":"Bob","last":"Ross"} to my file using PHP?
Here's what I have so far:
<?php
$user = "bross";
$first = "Bob";
$last = "Ross";
$file = "list.txt";
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file));
$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);
file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json));
?>
Which gives me a Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array on this line:
$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);
I'm using PHP5.2. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Answer 1

The clue is in the error message - if you look at the documentation for json_decode note that it can take a second param, which controls whether it returns an array or an object - it defaults to object.
So change your call to
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), true);
And it'll return an associative array and your code should work fine.

Answer 2

The sample for reading and writing JSON in PHP:
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file),TRUE);
$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);
file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json));

Answer 3

Or just use $json as an object:
$json->$user = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);
This is how it is returned without the second parameter (as an instance of stdClass).

Answer 4

You need to make the decode function return an array by passing in the true parameter.
json_decode(file_get_contents($file),true);

Answer 5

Try using second parameter for json_decode function:
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), true);

Answer 6

This should work for you to get the contents of list.txt file
$headers = array('http'=>array('method'=>'GET','header'=>'Content: type=application/json \r\n'.'$agent \r\n'.'$hash'));
$context=stream_context_create($headers);
$str = file_get_contents("list.txt",FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH,$context);
$str=utf8_encode($str);
$str=json_decode($str,true);
print_r($str);

Answer 7

If you want to display the JSON data in well defined formate you can modify the code as:
file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json,TRUE));
$headers = array('http'=>array('method'=>'GET','header'=>'Content: type=application/json \r\n'.'$agent \r\n'.'$hash'));
$context=stream_context_create($headers);
$str = file_get_contents("list.txt",FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH,$context);
$str1=utf8_encode($str);
$str1=json_decode($str1,true);
foreach($str1 as $key=>$value)
{
echo "key is: $key.\n";
echo "values are: \t";
foreach ($value as $k) {
echo " $k. \t";
# code...
}
echo "<br></br>";
echo "\n";
}

Answer 8

When you want to create json format it had to be in this format for it to read:
[
{
"":"",
"":[
{
"":"",
"":""
}
]
}
]