PHP json-like-string split - php

Question

I have this $str value :
[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]
I want to split it into the following:
firstname:guest1,lastname:one,age:22
firstname:guest2,lastname:two,age:22
I tried explode (",",$str) , but it explode all using , as delimiter and I don't get what I want
anyone can help me ?

Answer 1

As Josh K points out, that looks suspiciously like a JSON string. Maybe you should do a json_decode() on it to get the actual data you're looking for, all organized nicely into an array of objects.
EDIT: it seems your string is itself wrapped in double quotes ", so you'll have to trim those away before you'll be able to decode it as valid JSON:
$str_json = trim($str, '"');
$guests = json_decode($str_json);
var_dump($guests);
I get this output with the var_dump(), so it's definitely valid JSON here:
array(2) {
[0]=>
object(stdClass)#1 (4) {
["firstname"]=>
string(6) "guest1"
["lastname"]=>
string(3) "one"
["age"]=>
string(2) "22"
["gender"]=>
string(4) "Male"
}
[1]=>
object(stdClass)#2 (4) {
["firstname"]=>
string(6) "guest2"
["lastname"]=>
string(3) "two"
["age"]=>
string(2) "22"
["gender"]=>
string(6) "Female"
}
}
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is not CSV (comma-separated values). They're two vastly different data formats, so you can't parse one like the other.
To get your two strings, use a loop to get the keys and values of each object, and then build the strings with those values:
foreach ($guests as $guest) {
$s = array();
foreach ($guest as $k => $v) {
if ($k == 'gender') break;
$s[] = "$k:$v";
}
echo implode(',', $s) . "\n";
}
Output:
firstname:guest1,lastname:one,age:22
firstname:guest2,lastname:two,age:22
(Assuming you do want to exclude the genders for whatever reason; if not, delete the if ($k == 'gender') break; line.)

Answer 2

If you split on ,'s then you will get all the other crap that surrounds it. You would then have to strip that off.
Looks a lot like JSON data to me, where is this string coming from?

Answer 3

If that is valid json, just run it through json_decode() to get a native php array...
Note that you may need to run it through stripslashes() first, as it appears you may have magic_quotes_gpc set... You can conditionally call it by checking with the function get_magic_quotes_gpc:
if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
$_POST['foo'] = stripslashes($_POST['foo']);
}
$array = json_decode($_POST['foo']);

Answer 4

You need to use preg_replace function.
$ptn = "/,\\"gender\\":\\"\w+\\"\}\]?|\\"|\[?\{/";
$str = "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]";
$rpltxt = "";
echo preg_replace($ptn, $rpltxt, $str);
You can the php regular expression tester to test the result.
or use preg_match_all
$ptn = "/(firstname)\\":\\"(\w+)\\",\\"(lastname)\\":\\"(\w+)\\",\\"(age)\\":\\"(\d+)/";
$str = "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]";
preg_match_all($ptn, $str, $matches);
print_r($matches);

Answer 5

i still haven't get a chance to retrieve the JSON :
I var_dump the trimmed value as :
$str_json = trim($userdetails->other_guests, '"');
$guests = json_decode($str_json);
var_dump($str_json,$guests);
WHERE $userdetails->other_guests is the $str value I had before...
I get the following output :
string(169) "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"23\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]"
NULL
This mean the decoded json are NULL... strange