JSON decode shows "Array"

Question

This part:

$response_2 = json_decode($response_2, true);

...of the code below is echoed literally as "Array" in the browser. If I remove the part, the full $response_2 is echoed in browser in JSON-format just like in this example: https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/get-list-users-playlists/

How come?

<?php

$url = 'https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token';
$method = 'POST';

$credentials = "hidden:hidden";

$headers = array(
        "Accept: */*",
        "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode($credentials));
$data = 'grant_type=client_credentials';

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);

curl_close($ch);

$response = json_decode($response, true);

$token = $response['access_token'];

echo "My token is: " . $token;

$headers_2 = array(
        "Accept: */*",
        "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        ('Authorization: Bearer ' . $token));

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,'https://api.spotify.com/v1/users/wizzler/playlists');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers_2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response_2 = curl_exec($ch);

curl_close($ch);

$response_2 = json_decode($response_2, true);

echo $response_2;

?>

json_decode() returns an array. You can't echo an array. Use print_r() or var_dump() to inspect the contents. And then echo a specific element, like so: echo $response_2['foo'];. — Amal
– Amal, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 18:09
Appreciated! I went with print_r ($response_2); and it worked great. — Rawland Hustle
– Rawland Hustle, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 18:15
Cool. Note, however, that print_r() is just for debugging; it is not meant to be used in actual code. @Rawland — Amal
– Amal, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 18:17
In the next step I want to this though: foreach($response_2['items'] as $item) {echo 'Title: ' . $item['external_urls'] . '<br />'; echo 'Brand: ' . $item['owner']['external_urls'] . '<br />'; } If replace "echo" with "print_r" nothing happens. Am I going about this all wrong? — Rawland Hustle
– Rawland Hustle, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 18:30

Funk Forty Niner · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-02 18:17:48Z

2

When you use echo on an array, it just prints out the literal string Array. This is just a quirk of PHP.

If you want to print out the contents of the array, you can use print_r() or var_dump().

However it seems like what you actually want to do is print the JSON, which is the string. $response_2 is already a string, so print it out.

edited Jul 2, 2014 at 18:17

Funk Forty Niner

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answered Jul 2, 2014 at 18:10

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1 Comment

War10ck Over a year ago

It should be noted that this applies to objects as well (in reference to the OP's duplicate question)...

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