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 ?
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.)
var_dump($str); so I can see what the actual $str is?
var_dump(function_exists('json_decode'));. (Should output bool(true)).stripslashes() call. Also, if the function didn't exist, PHP would throw a fatal error instead of it returning NULL.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?
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']);
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);
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
