Convert JSON list to php array

Question

I am passing a list of numbers from a page to PHP serialized in JSON

{"items":"[1,2,3,4]"}

in my URL it is just

...&items={"items":[1,2,3,4]}

I decode this in PHP

$json = $_GET["items"];
$arr = json_decode($json, true);

I get an array

Array ( [items] => [1,2,4] )

But when I try a foreach on arr["items"] and print out each value, all I get is a single value

[1,2,4]

This is the code I am using to iterate

foreach($res["items"] as $value)
    echo $value;

How come I am not getting something like

1
2
4

Why do you serialize them on the client? Why don't you pass array as-is? — zerkms
– zerkms, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 21:59
because I have never worked with PHP. How can I pass arrays from javascript to PHP directly? — MxLDevs
– MxLDevs, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 22:00
Oh, didn't know about that. Would I just iterate over $_GET["items"] to access each value? — MxLDevs
– MxLDevs, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 22:02

Hernan Velasquez · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27 22:01:45Z

5

Look closely at your json string:

{"items":"[1,2,3,4]"}

Look closer:

"[1,2,3,4]"

You are saying that items is a string containing:

"[1,2,3,4]"

Remove the " and you'll be fine.

answered Nov 27, 2012 at 22:01

Hernan Velasquez

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Comments

lupatus · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27 22:36:06Z

2

Your serialization is wrong. Should be:

{"items":[1,2,3]}

To get rid of problems like that use JSON.stringify in JS:

var myData = {"items" : [1,2,3]},
    queryString = 'data='+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(myData));

for IE < 8 it has to be included from external script (see here) :

<!--[if lt IE 8]><script src="/js/json2.js"></script><![endif]-->

Anyway much easier would be to send it already as an array:

items[0]=1&items[1]=2&items[2]=3

This way you can send also more complex structures:

data[items][0]=1&data[items][1]=2
// on PHP side will become
$_GET['data'] = array('items' => array(1,2))

edited Nov 27, 2012 at 22:36

answered Nov 27, 2012 at 22:05

lupatus

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2 Comments

MxLDevs Over a year ago

My data comes in JSON so I figured it would be convenient to just pass it down as JSON as well.

lupatus Over a year ago

If you really want to send data in json then safer would be use JSON.stringify() method from JS (for IE < 8 you need to include it github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js).

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