How to convert a JSON string into an array (PHP)? - php

Question

using the below code for decoding json
$categories = json_decode($data);
$categories = $categories->data;
where i get this
{"categories":[{"id":1,"name":"Utilities","apps":897,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/uti.jpg"},{"id":2,"name":"Productivity","apps":477,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/pro.jpg"},{"id":3,"name":"Music","apps":466,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/mus.jpg"},{"id":4,"name":"Travel","apps":289,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/tra.jpg"},{"id":5,"name":"Navigation","apps":297,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/nav.jpg"},{"id":6,"name":"Books","apps":271,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/boo.jpg"},{"id":7,"name":"Healthcare & Fitness","apps":250,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/hea.jpg"},{"id":8,"name":"Games","apps":5116,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/gam.jpg"},{"id":9,"name":"Social Networking","apps":272,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/soc.jpg"},{"id":10,"name":"Lifestyle","apps":434,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/lif.jpg"},{"id":11,"name":"Finance","apps":200,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/fin.jpg"},{"id":12,"name":"News","apps":128,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/new.jpg"},{"id":13,"name":"Photography","apps":481,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/pho.jpg"},{"id":14,"name":"Entertainment","apps":1251,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/ent.jpg"},{"id":15,"name":"Business","apps":221,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/bus.jpg"},{"id":16,"name":"Sports","apps":199,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/spo.jpg"},{"id":17,"name":"Education","apps":433,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/edu.jpg"},{"id":18,"name":"Medical","apps":262,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/med.jpg"},{"id":19,"name":"Weather","apps":64,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/wea.jpg"},{"id":20,"name":"Reference","apps":419,"iconurl":"http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/ref.jpg"}]}
and i would like to convert to in an array like this
Array[0]
{
id => 1
name => Utilities
apps => 897
iconurl => http:\/\/static.apptrackr.org\/caticons\/uti.jpg
}
and so on

Answer 1

This looks like a JSON string. You can use json_decode() to convert it into a PHP variable, e.g.
$obj = json_decode($json);
print_r($obj->categories); // array of StdClass objects
You can access and iterate the categories array regularly
echo $obj->categories[0]->name; // Utilities
echo $obj->categories[1]->name; // Productivity
echo $obj->categories[2]->name; // Music
To convert the StdClass objects to arrays, you could do
$categories = array();
foreach (json_decode($json)->categories as $category) {
$categories[] = (array) $category;
}
print_r($categories);
You could also do it with a lambda function and array_map:
// Before PHP5.3
$categories = array_map(
create_function('$el', 'return (array) $el;'),
json_decode($json)->categories);
// After PHP5.3
$categories = array_map(
function($el) { return (array) $el; },
json_decode($json)->categories);

Answer 2

Erm, you can just set the 2nd parameter to convert JSON into an array instead of into an object:
$categories = json_decode($data, true);

Answer 3

take a look at get_object_vars
http://php.net/manual/en/function.get-object-vars.php

Answer 4

#Gordon seems correct - that looks like JSON. Assuming, though, that you're dealing with an "actual" PHP Object, then it will be iterable; simply run through it with a foreach and push each key/value pair into your destination array.