Pass multiple lists from Python to a PHP array?

Question

Im trying to get multiple lists from a python script to PHP. Going off from this question Passing a Python list to php, Im using Json.

Python:

list1 = [1,2,3]
list2 = [4,5,6]
print(json.dumps(list1))
print(json.dumps(list2))

For PHP I tried multiple ways:

json_decode(exec("test.py", $return), true);

var_dump($return);

This gives the two lists as an array of strings.

(array(2) { [0]=> string(9) "[1, 2, 3]" [1]=> string(9) "[4, 5, 6]")

Using

$output = json_decode(exec("test.py", $return), true);

var_dump($output);

only gives the second list as an array.

Using print(json.dumps([list1,list2])) in Python gives the two lists as a single string.

How can I get multiple lists as arrays in PHP? Or is there a better way to parse the lists in PHP?

You should just be able to do this in python: print([list1, list2]) — C_Z_
– C_Z_, Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:21
@C_Z_ This just gives one long string same as print(json.dumps([list1,list2])) — user1922979
– user1922979, Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:23

Code Spirit · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-02 20:22:38Z

1

Your mixing things up. Your first python example produces 2 valid json string which together are invalid json.

Then exec returns the last line of output and stores each line as a single entry in the second argument ($return).

So you python should look like:

list1 = [1,2,3]
list2 = [4,5,6]
# Print one line of json
print(json.dumps([list1, list2]))

And PHP:

$output = exec("test.py");
$data = json_decode($output, true);

// OR
$output = [];
exec("test.py", $output);

$data = json_decode($output[0], true);

answered Nov 2, 2021 at 20:22

Code Spirit

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1 Comment

Thanks, your second example is what worked for me. Now each list is accessible as an array through output[]