php array to json square bracket

no square bracket json array

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When trying to access an API the JSON array must be parsed like this

{"item":[{"id":"123456", "name":"adam"}]}

But when i'm doing the following code

$data = array("item" => array("id" => "123456", "name" => "adam")); echo json_encode($data);

it returns the json array without squared brackets as follows

{"item":{"id":"123456","name":"adam"}}

I've spent hours trying to figure out how to fix this and just can't think of a solution

phpjson

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asked Mar 21 '13 at 22:55

Curtis Crewe

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4 Answers

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You need to wrap things in another array:

$data = array("item" => array(array("id" => "123456", "name" => "adam")));

This will be more understandable if we use the equivalent PHP 5.4 array syntax:

$data = [ "item" => [ ["id" => "123456", "name" => "adam"] ] ];

Compare this with the JSON:

{ "item": [ {"id":"123456", "name":"adam" } ] }

The only thing to explain is why one of the PHP arrays remains an array [] in JSON while the other two get converted to an object {}. But the documentation already does so:

When encoding an array, if the keys are not a continuous numeric sequence starting from 0, all keys are encoded as strings, and specified explicitly for each key-value pair.

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answered Mar 21 '13 at 22:57

Jon

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  When using that code as provided it's placing the squared brackets outside everything instead of inside item ? – Curtis Crewe Mar 21 '13 at 23:01

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  @CurtisCrewe: Sorry, typo. Fixed now. – Jon Mar 21 '13 at 23:01

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  Just what I was looking for – JoshHighland Aug 19 '15 at 7:32

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7

Before reading this post, I had this:

echo json_encode($data);

After reading this post:

echo json_encode(array($data));

Brackets appeared on the start and end of the JSON object.

:)

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answered Mar 5 '16 at 4:57

Chad

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  Don't know why the downvote because it just worked for me (+1). – Jose Manuel Abarca Rodríguez Jul 11 '16 at 20:41

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  Useful, but if you want the brackets IN the data arrays, just use something like this: $MyArray = array( "something" => [array("foo" => "bar")] ); – Jimmy Adaro Feb 7 '18 at 22:31

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3

It become handy when using this way, so you can add more items on the array

$val = array(); $val["id"]="123456"; $val["name"]="adam"; $data = array(); $data["item"][]=$val; echo json_encode($data);

And it will ouput below:

{"item":[{"id":"123456", "name":"adam"}]}

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answered Mar 22 '17 at 8:52

Dards

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Based on your code:

$data = array("item" => array("id" => "123456", "name" => "adam")); echo json_encode($data);

You should just use another array() to force the bracket.

$data = array("item" => array(array("id" => "123456", "name" => "adam"))); echo json_encode($data);

This will return the value you are looking for:

{ "item": [ {"id":"123456", "name":"adam" } ] }

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answered Jan 14 at 18:51

Lietmotiv

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