how to encode raw json string in php

Question

I have JSON that has been saved in a text box on my site to a database below.

{&quot;@type&quot;:&quot;GOOOGLE.COM&quot;,&quot;@id&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE&quot;,&quot;inLanguage&quot;:&quot;en-US&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;dfghjk | Bloomberg Professional Services&quot;,&quot;isPartOf&quot;:{&quot;@id&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE,&quot;datePublished&quot;:&quot;2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00&quot;,&quot;dateModified&quot;:&quot;2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00&quot;}]}

I want to convert it to look properly in PHP as so:

{"@type":"GOOOGLE.COM","@id":"GOOGLE","url":"GOOGLE","inLanguage":"en-US","name":"dfghjk | Bloomberg Professional Services","isPartOf":{"@id":"GOOGLE,"datePublished":"2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00"}]}

I tried doing a json_encode but its not working. How do i convert that string with all those escape quotes etc to a normal json string in PHP?

I tried as so:

  $str = "{&quot;@type&quot;:&quot;GOOOGLE.COM&quot;,&quot;@id&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE&quot;,&quot;inLanguage&quot;:&quot;en-US&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;dfghjk | Bloomberg Professional Services&quot;,&quot;isPartOf&quot;:{&quot;@id&quot;:&quot;GOOGLE,&quot;datePublished&quot;:&quot;2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00&quot;,&quot;dateModified&quot;:&quot;2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00&quot;}]}"
  $data = json_encode($str, true);  
  return $data;

Even after decoding the HTML entities, there are still a couple of syntax errors in there - the nested "GOOGLE value isn't quoted properly, and there's a spare ] at the end. It'll need fixing manually. — iainn
– iainn, Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 15:59

Eriks Klotins · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-12 15:57:48Z

2

You need to decode HTML entities back into characters:

https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars-decode.php

  $json = htmlspecialchars_decode($str, true);  // valid json string
  $data = json_decode($json); // convert json to php data structure
  return $data;

answered Feb 12, 2020 at 15:57

Eriks Klotins

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6 Comments

soniccool Over a year ago

didnt seem to work, in the end it comes out to null and using the debugger i see it doesnt change

soniccool Over a year ago

looks like $json = htmlspecialchars_decode($str, true); should just be $json = htmlspecialchars_decode($str);

Eriks Klotins Over a year ago

also, the provided JSON string is not a valid JSON. A few quotes are misplaced

soniccool Over a year ago

Gotcha,is there a way i can remove the outside quotes as well and replace them with single?

"{"@type":"GOOOGLE.COM","@id":"GOOGLE","url":"GOOGLE","inLanguage":"en-US","name":"dfghjk | Bloomberg Professional Services","isPartOf":{"@id":"GOOGLE,"datePublished":"2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-11T21:51:45+00:00"}]}"

Eriks Klotins Over a year ago

JSON standard uses double-quotes for strings.If you convert double quotes with singe, that will break the json even further. I do not think there is a one-fits-all solution to repair broken JSON.

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