Symfony Serializer empty objects

Question

I need the serializer to produce an empty object. Normally I would just do

json_encode(new stdClass()) --> '{}'

but the symfony serializer does

$this->get('serializer')->serialize(new  \stdClass(), 'json')) --> '[]'

I guess this is because the serializer first normalizes my data to an array, which is in this case empty.

Is there a way to get back json_encode default behaviour?

Sergey Fedotov · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-24 11:46:12Z

0

You can directly call encode method:

$this->get('serializer')->encode(new \StdClass(), 'json')

answered Jan 24, 2016 at 11:46

Sergey Fedotov

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2 Comments

skymeissner Over a year ago

This does the job if the response is only the standard object. (I guess it just does json_encode()?) But in reality I first fetch some objects with doctrine and then "mix" them with some default values. So my new stdClass() is just a part of the final json. And serializing the doctrine objects with json_encode() does not work.

Sergey Fedotov Over a year ago

I think the only way is to write your own or extend existing normalizer. You need to return object as is if it is an instance of stdClass.

Andreas Linden · Accepted Answer · 2025-05-09 18:45:28Z

0

Have a look at Versatile Object Mapper. It builds on top of symfony serializer and has even more features.

You can use the following context option to enable this behavior:

$json = $objectMapper->serialize(new \stdClass(), 'json', ['preserve_empty_objects' => true]);
// $json will ne '{}'

answered May 9 at 18:45

Andreas Linden

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Comments

yaoviametepe · Accepted Answer · 2025-05-15 16:00:52Z

-1

As @sergey-fedotov suggested, you need a custom implementation.

Give the code below a try:


use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\NormalizerInterface;

class StdClassNormalizer implements NormalizerInterface
{
    public function normalize($object, string $format = null, array $context = []): array|\stdClass
    {
        if ($object instanceof \stdClass && empty(get_object_vars($object))) {
            return new \stdClass();
        }
        return (array) $object;
    }

    public function supportsNormalization($data, string $format = null, array $context = []): bool
    {
        return $data instanceof \stdClass;
    }
}

Don't forget to register StdClassNormalizer as a Service.

answered May 15 at 16:00

yaoviametepe

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