Php json_encode an array with a json value

Question

let's suppose I have the following array:

$res['results']='{"key":"value"}';
$res['status']='OK';

and I json_encode that array:

var_dump(json_encode($res));

This is the result (double quotes are escaped):

{"results":"{\"key\":\"value\"}","status":"OK"}

But I want this result (double quotes not escaped):

{"results":"{"key":"value"}","status":"OK"}

What's the correct way to accomplish my goal, supposing that the array is a bit more complicated and I don't know which values are json themselves?

Thanks very much

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-09 20:17:13Z

1

You've embedded json in a php string. PHP doesn't know what JSON is, and will treat that json-in-string as it would any other string - any json metacharacters will be quoted when you json_encode() again. e.g. it'll just double-encode.

You need to decode the json string, store the decoded data structure, then re-encode the entirety:

$res['results']=json_decode('{"key":"value"}');
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^-----------------^
$res['status']='OK';

answered Feb 9, 2016 at 20:17

Marc B

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2 Comments

Stefano Giacone Over a year ago

Yeah I know, I guess it's the only option? I was looking for a general solution in case you don't know that that value will be a json (suppose it's a variable coming from somewhere else...).

Marc B Over a year ago

well, your desired result is invalid json anyways. it would blow up any json parser you fed it to.

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