PHP: PHP Objects Stored As Arrays Within Array (Multi Dimensional Arrays)

Question

I have spent a serious amount of time looking at arrays arrays_fill_keys and many other alternatives to try and solve what seemingly is a standard request:

I have a DB table. I am going to return several columns from it and most likely all rows. On return I am looking to insert each row as an object into an array. I have been able to do that. But I want to return each column as a key in that object. I have been partially been able to do that. But my code seems to insert each row as an array with another array, as opposed to object in array.

Code Below:

if(isset($_POST["BasicSearchExecuted"]) && !empty($_POST["BasicSearchExecuted"])){
    $basic_search_table_name = array($_POST["TableName"]);
    $basic_search_column_names_sql = "SELECT TABLE_NAME, CATEGORY_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, CHARACTER_LENGTH FROM TableColumnsAndCategories WHERE TABLE_NAME=?";
    $basic_search_table_name = str_replace('View', '', $basic_search_table_name);
    $basic_search_column_names = sqlsrv_query($database_connection, $basic_search_column_names_sql, $basic_search_table_name);
    $basic_search_column_array = array();
    while($basic_search_column_names_option = sqlsrv_fetch_object($basic_search_column_names)){
        $basic_search_column_array[] = array("ColumnName" => $basic_search_column_names_option->COLUMN_NAME, "DataType" => $basic_search_column_names_option->DATA_TYPE, "CategoryName" => $basic_search_column_names_option->CATEGORY_NAME);       
    }
    print_r($basic_search_column_array);
}

This is returning the following:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetID
            [DataType] => uniqueidentifier
            [CategoryName] => Default
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetAssetName
            [DataType] => varchar
            [CategoryName] => Basic
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetAssetStatusID
            [DataType] => tinyint
            [CategoryName] => Basic
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetAssetTag
            [DataType] => varchar
            [CategoryName] => Basic
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetSerialNumber
            [DataType] => varchar
            [CategoryName] => Basic
        )

    [5] => Array
        (
            [ColumnName] => HardwareAssetManufacturerID
            [DataType] => uniqueidentifier
            [CategoryName] => Basic
        )
)

What i instead want to return is something like this, or at least something that can be interpreted and utilised like the following in JS:

    Array= [{

        ColumnName: "HardwareAssetID",
        DataType: "uniqueidentifier",
        CategoryName: "Default",
        },
        {
        ColumnName: "HardwareAssetID",
        DataType: "uniqueidentifier",
        CategoryName: "Default",
        },
        {
        ColumnName: "HardwareAssetID",
        DataType: "uniqueidentifier",
        CategoryName: "Default",
        }
    }]

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Bing · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-27 17:47:31Z

1

Would the built-in json_encode function work?

Just replace print_r($basic_search_column_array); with echo json_encode($basic_search_column_array);.

answered Jun 27, 2017 at 17:47

Bing

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2 Comments

TheTechnicalPaladin Over a year ago

thank you very much, as easy as that. wasnt aware of the function

Bing Over a year ago

There are some keywords with every language which help when searching Google. json and encode are two good ones :)

axiac · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-27 18:12:46Z

0

Have you read the documentation of print_r()? It says: "Prints human-readable information about a variable". The purpose if print_r() is to help the developer understand the value and the structure of a variable, not to pass the data to another program or to store it for later use.

Use json_encode() if you want to encode the data as JSON to pass it to another software (a JS script that runs in a browser, for example).

answered Jun 27, 2017 at 18:12

axiac

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