JSON Functions
<?php
include_once('json_decode.php'); // #100740 's json_decode()
var_dump(json_decode('"$json"'));
var_dump(json_decode('"$omething"'));
var_dump(json_decode('date("c")'));
?>
In this code, a php without built-in json_decode() prints:
string(7) ""$json""
string(0) ""
string(25) "2012-05-05T00:00:00+00:00"
expecting:
string(5) "$json"
string(9) "$omething"
NULL
They can be too vulnerable. To avoid them, it should be like
below. Since this code is still not perfect, when you have to
decode a JSON that might be invalid, you had better use a
JSON library like PEAR or Zend's, or upgrade your php.
<?php
if (!function_exists('json_decode')) {
function json_decode($json) {
$comment = false;
$out = '$x=';
for ($i=0; $i<strlen($json); $i++) {
if (!$comment) {
if (($json[$i] == '{') || ($json[$i] == '[')) {
$out .= 'array(';
}
elseif (($json[$i] == '}') || ($json[$i] == ']')) {
$out .= ')';
}
elseif ($json[$i] == ':') {
$out .= '=>';
}
elseif ($json[$i] == ',') {
$out .= ',';
}
elseif ($json[$i] == '"') {
$out .= '"';
}
/*elseif (!preg_match('/\s/', $json[$i])) {
return null;
}*/
}
else $out .= $json[$i] == '$' ? '\$' : $json[$i];
if ($json[$i] == '"' && $json[($i-1)] != '\\') $comment = !$comment;
}
eval($out. ';');
return $x;
}
}
?>
json_decode
(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PECL json >= 1.2.0)
json_decode — Decodes a JSON string
Description
mixed json_decode
( string
$json
[, bool $assoc = false
[, int $depth = 512
[, int $options = 0
]]] )Takes a JSON encoded string and converts it into a PHP variable.
Parameters
-
json -
The
jsonstring being decoded.This function only works with UTF-8 encoded data.
-
assoc -
When
TRUE, returned objects will be converted into associative arrays. -
depth -
User specified recursion depth.
-
options -
Bitmask of JSON decode options. Currently only
JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRINGis supported (default is to cast large integers as floats)
Return Values
Returns the value encoded in json in appropriate
PHP type. Values true, false and
null (case-insensitive) are returned as TRUE, FALSE
and NULL respectively. NULL is returned if the
json cannot be decoded or if the encoded
data is deeper than the recursion limit.
Examples
Example #1 json_decode() examples
<?php
$json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}';
var_dump(json_decode($json));
var_dump(json_decode($json, true));
?>
The above example will output:
object(stdClass)#1 (5) {
["a"] => int(1)
["b"] => int(2)
["c"] => int(3)
["d"] => int(4)
["e"] => int(5)
}
array(5) {
["a"] => int(1)
["b"] => int(2)
["c"] => int(3)
["d"] => int(4)
["e"] => int(5)
}
Example #2 Accessing invalid object properties
Accessing elements within an object that contain characters not permitted under PHP's naming convention (e.g. the hyphen) can be accomplished by encapsulating the element name within braces and the apostrophe.
<?php
$json = '{"foo-bar": 12345}';
$obj = json_decode($json);
print $obj->{'foo-bar'}; // 12345
?>
Example #3 common mistakes using json_decode()
<?php
// the following strings are valid JavaScript but not valid JSON
// the name and value must be enclosed in double quotes
// single quotes are not valid
$bad_json = "{ 'bar': 'baz' }";
json_decode($bad_json); // null
// the name must be enclosed in double quotes
$bad_json = '{ bar: "baz" }';
json_decode($bad_json); // null
// trailing commas are not allowed
$bad_json = '{ bar: "baz", }';
json_decode($bad_json); // null
?>
Example #4 depth errors
<?php
// Encode the data.
$json = json_encode(
array(
1 => array(
'English' => array(
'One',
'January'
),
'French' => array(
'Une',
'Janvier'
)
)
)
);
// Define the errors.
$constants = get_defined_constants(true);
$json_errors = array();
foreach ($constants["json"] as $name => $value) {
if (!strncmp($name, "JSON_ERROR_", 11)) {
$json_errors[$value] = $name;
}
}
// Show the errors for different depths.
foreach (range(4, 3, -1) as $depth) {
var_dump(json_decode($json, true, $depth));
echo 'Last error: ', $json_errors[json_last_error()], PHP_EOL, PHP_EOL;
}
?>
The above example will output:
array(1) {
[1]=>
array(2) {
["English"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(3) "One"
[1]=>
string(7) "January"
}
["French"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(3) "Une"
[1]=>
string(7) "Janvier"
}
}
}
Last error: JSON_ERROR_NONE
NULL
Last error: JSON_ERROR_DEPTH
Example #5 json_decode() of large integers
<?php
$json = '12345678901234567890';
var_dump(json_decode($json));
var_dump(json_decode($json, false, 512, JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRING));
?>
The above example will output:
float(1.2345678901235E+19) string(20) "12345678901234567890"
Notes
Note:
The JSON spec is not JavaScript, but a subset of JavaScript.
Note:
In the event of a failure to decode, json_last_error() can be used to determine the exact nature of the error.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.4.0 |
The options parameter was added.
|
| 5.3.0 | Added the optional depth. The default recursion depth was increased from 128 to 512 |
| 5.2.3 | The nesting limit was increased from 20 to 128 |
| 5.2.1 | Added support for JSON decoding of basic types. |
See Also
- json_encode() - Returns the JSON representation of a value
- json_last_error() - Returns the last error occurred
add a note
User Contributed Notes
json_decode
Anonymous
06-May-2012 04:08
aeternuslibertas at gmail dot com
14-Mar-2012 03:46
/*since json_decode() decodes json, it MUST check if the argument passed in is json, so logically one can assume that json_decode() also functions as a json checker*/
//thus....
if(json_decode($input_json) == NULL)
{
echo("not valid json!");
}else
{
$my_json_object = json_decode($input_json);
}
juanloman at hilfetech dot com
07-Jan-2012 09:38
I found that even though json_decode() takes UTF-8 strings, it won't parse if a Byte-Order-Mark (BOM) is present.
Also, if you allow your users to edit JSON files, you end up with a mix of ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8 with and without BOM.
This function prepares a string for the JSON parser by converting it to UTF-8 and removing the BOM if present.
<?php
function prepareJSON($input) {
//This will convert ASCII/ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8.
//Be careful with the third parameter (encoding detect list), because
//if set wrong, some input encodings will get garbled (including UTF-8!)
$imput = mb_convert_encoding($input, 'UTF-8', 'ASCII,UTF-8,ISO-8859-1');
//Remove UTF-8 BOM if present, json_decode() does not like it.
if(substr($input, 0, 3) == pack("CCC", 0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF)) $input = substr($input, 3);
return $input;
}
//Usage:
$myFile = file_get_contents('somefile.json');
$myDataArr = json_decode(prepareJSON($myFile), true);
?>
sjungwirth at gmail dot com
01-Dec-2011 01:45
My way to replace single quotes around values
<?php
$json = <<<STR
{"key":'val',"key's":'O\\'Brian\'s', "key\"quotes\"" : 'Jimmy "the rock" Michael\'s'}
STR;
$json = preg_replace('/:\s*\'(([^\']|\\\\\')*)\'\s*([},])/e', "':'.json_encode(stripslashes('$1')).'$3'", $json);
print_r(json_decode($json, TRUE));
/**
* Array
* (
* [key] => val
* [key's] => O'Brian's
* [key"quotes"] => Jimmy "the rock" Michael's
* )
*/
?>
combine this with previous posters way to enclose keys in double quotes and you have a loose json_decode function that can handle javascript object syntax: {key:'', ...}
rajeevroy1525 at gmail dot com
15-Nov-2011 02:38
To test the a string, is json encoded or not. we can use the following function
<?php
function IsJsonString($str){
try{
$jObject = json_decode($str);
}catch(Exception $e){
return false;
}
return (is_object($jObject)) ? true : false;
}
?>
Usage :
<?php
$jArray = array("vars"=>array("a"=>"1", "b"=>"2"));
$jString = json_encode($jArray);
if (IsJsonString($jString))
{
echo "Its Json";
}
else{
echo "It isn't Json";
}
?>
The above code will return "Its Json" and in case wrong json string it will return "Its isn't Json".
alexvonweiss at googlemail dot com
23-Sep-2011 05:49
Consider that JSON can differ between int and string. So
<?php
var_dump(json_decode('{"foo": 12}'));
// array(1) { ["foo"]=> int(12) }
var_dump(json_decode('{"foo": "12"}'));
// array(1) { ["foo"]=> string(12) }
?>
Numbers that cannot be handled by integer seems to become float casted. This can be a problem if you transfer big numbers like facebook ids over JSON. Either you avoid numbers by cast everything to string before JSON.stringify or you have to use number_format if the value bacome a float value.
<?php
// test
$x = json_decode('{"foo": 123456789012345}');
echo sprintf('%1$f', $x->foo).PHP_EOL;
echo sprintf('%1$u', $x->foo).PHP_EOL;
echo sprintf('%1$s', $x->foo).PHP_EOL;
echo strval($x->foo).PHP_EOL;
echo (string) $x->foo.PHP_EOL;
echo number_format($x->foo, 0, '', '').PHP_EOL;
// output
123456789012345.000000 // printf %f
2249056121 // printf %u
1.2345678901234E+14 // printf %s
1.2345678901234E+14 // strval()
1.2345678901234E+14 // cast (string)
2249056121 // cast (int)
123456789012345 // number_format()
?>
Dragos.U
05-Aug-2011 03:52
Hmm, using eval without proper escaping of the input value .. will not get you anything good ;)
Here is my JSON decode function, it does not decode to PHP object/array but only to an array (can be easily changed anyway).
<?php
function jsonDecode ($json)
{
$json = str_replace(array("\\\\", "\\\""), array("\", """), $json);
$parts = preg_split("@(\"[^\"]*\")|([\[\]\{\},:])|\s@is", $json, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
foreach ($parts as $index => $part)
{
if (strlen($part) == 1)
{
switch ($part)
{
case "[":
case "{":
$parts[$index] = "array(";
break;
case "]":
case "}":
$parts[$index] = ")";
break;
case ":":
$parts[$index] = "=>";
break;
case ",":
break;
default:
return null;
}
}
else
{
if ((substr($part, 0, 1) != "\"") || (substr($part, -1, 1) != "\""))
{
return null;
}
}
}
$json = str_replace(array("\", """, "$"), array("\\\\", "\\\"", "\\$"), implode("", $parts));
return eval("return $json;");
}
?>
How it works:
it searches for the "..." (that can be a key or a value) so we need to make sure we do not take into account something like ...\"... that is not the end of the key/value but escaped value for the doublequote. That's why we first replace \\ (escaped backslash) and then we can look for a ...\"... and be sure it's not a ...\\" (the end of the key/value).
Next we split the string into chunks, any other characters outside of the "..." only need to be []{},: (and spaces, but those we can throw away).
Next we do a little bit of checking on the data, be sure we have valid JSON and replace some of the characters on the way (so we can 'eval' as PHP code later).
Then we replace back the initial changed characters and escape $ (!!!) because we will use 'eval' with values of the array (keys and values) in double quotes.
(http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php)
The function will return NULL for invalid JSON.
;)
evengard at trioptimum dot com
13-Apr-2011 05:58
There is a problem when passing to json_decode a string with the "\" symbol. It seems to identify it as an escape character and trying to follow it. So sometimes it leads to failed parsing.
It seems that just replacing it with "\\" helps.
<?php
print_r(json_decode(str_replace('\\', '\\\\', '{"name":"/\"}')));
?>
where /\ is the string which doesn't worked.
contacto at hardcode dot com dot ar
25-Nov-2010 10:53
If you have a json encoded array that contains non UTF8 chars, this function will do the trick:
<?php
$array = json_decode(safeJSON_chars($iso_8859_1_data));
function safeJSON_chars($data) {
$aux = str_split($data);
foreach($aux as $a) {
$a1 = urlencode($a);
$aa = explode("%", $a1);
foreach($aa as $v) {
if($v!="") {
if(hexdec($v)>127) {
$data = str_replace($a,"&#".hexdec($v).";",$data);
}
}
}
}
return $data;
}
?>
Of course it works if you want to show this inside a HTML page, so entities will be converted.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me.
Anonymous
03-Nov-2010 10:22
to deal with escaped dbl-quotes this is required:
if ($json[$i] == '"' && $json[($i-1)]!="\\") $comment = !$comment;
revision is as follows:
<?php
if ( !function_exists('json_decode') ){
function json_decode($json)
{
$comment = false;
$out = '$x=';
for ($i=0; $i<strlen($json); $i++)
{
if (!$comment)
{
if (($json[$i] == '{') || ($json[$i] == '[')) $out .= ' array(';
else if (($json[$i] == '}') || ($json[$i] == ']')) $out .= ')';
else if ($json[$i] == ':') $out .= '=>';
else $out .= $json[$i];
}
else $out .= $json[$i];
if ($json[$i] == '"' && $json[($i-1)]!="\\") $comment = !$comment;
}
eval($out . ';');
return $x;
}
}
?>
Jestep
08-Sep-2010 10:26
I had a JSON string with multiple commas in it without any quotes, which was causing the json_decode to return false.
Once the double quotes were added, everything worked out fine.
A quick:
while(strpos($contents, ',,') !== false) {
$contents = str_replace(',,', ',"",', $contents);
}
solved the problem, and the function worked correctly. If you have tried everything and are still a FALSE return, I suggest trying the JSON validator in another post.
T erkif
10-Aug-2010 12:03
it seems, that some of the people are not aware, that if you are using json_decode to decode a string it HAS to be a propper json string:
<?php
var_dump(json_encode('Hello'));
var_dump(json_decode('Hello')); // wrong
var_dump(json_decode("Hello")); // wrong
var_dump(json_decode('"Hello"')); // correct
var_dump(json_decode("'Hello'")); // wrong
result:
string(7) ""Hello""
NULL
NULL
string(5) "Hello"
NULL
zgardner at allofe dot com
19-Jul-2010 07:23
There seems to be a difference in the way json_decode works between 5.2.9 and 5.2.6. Trying to run json_decode on a URL in 5.2.6 will return the URL, but in 5.2.9 it will return NULL.
5.2.6
var_dump(json_decode("http://www.php.net")); // Displays string(18) "http://www.php.net"
5.2.9
var_dump(json_decode("http://www.php.net")); // Displays NULL
The servers I tested it on both had json version 1.2.1.
steveo at crecon dot com
23-Jun-2010 08:11
I was getting an array like:
Array
(
[COLUMNS] => Array
(
[0] => ID
[1] => FIRST
[2] => LAST
)
[DATA] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 10
[1] => Mary
[2] => Smith
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 11
[1] => Joe
[2] => Black
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 12
[1] => Tom
[2] => Green
)
[3] => Array
. . .
With lots more columns and data from a json_decode call to a Cold Fusion .cfc which returned a database query. This is easy to turn into a nice associative array with the following code:
<?php
foreach ($results['DATA'] as $rowcount => $row){
foreach ($row as $colcount => $col){
$lines[$rowcount][$results['COLUMNS'][$colcount]]=$col;
}
}
?>
to get:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[ID] => 10
[FIRST] => Mary
[LAST] => Smith
)
[1] => Array
(
[ID] => 11
[FIRST] => Joe
[LAST] => Black
)
. . . etc.
I hope this helps someone.
majca J
05-Jun-2010 02:42
Noted in a comment below is that this function will return NULL when given a simple string.
This is new behavior - see the result in PHP 5.2.4 :
php > var_dump(json_decode('this is a simple string'));
string(23) "this is a simple string"
in PHP 5.3.2 :
php > var_dump(json_decode('this is a simple string'));
NULL
I had several functions that relied on checking the value of a purported JSON string if it didn't decode into an object/array. If you do too, be sure to be aware of this when upgrading to PHP 5.3.
phpuser
20-May-2010 12:52
If you keep having problems, try removing "problematic" characters from the json string:
$obj = json_decode(preg_replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x80-\xFF]/', '', $json_string);
NemoStein
19-May-2010 07:43
Pass you URL encoded ( urlencode($json) ), then decode it ( urldecode($_GET['json']) )...
Should do the trick...
Mitchell Simoens
05-May-2010 01:27
In my case, I was passing simple JSON in the URL...
eg myfile.php?test=["one", "two", "three"]
but I kept getting NULL no matter what I tried. I did a simple echo of $_REQUEST["test"] and noticed that the browser added the "\" to the double-quotes. I had to prepare the data first then do the decode:
<?php
$data = str_replace("\\", "", $_REQUEST["test"]);
$results = json_decode($data);
?>
This produced what was expected
php dot net at spam dot lublink dot net
02-Apr-2010 03:25
If the JSON is coming from javascript watch out for undefined variables :
Javascript ( using dojo ) returns this to me sometimes :
{ "index" : [undefined] }
When I pass this to json_decode, it returns null. Make sure that you check all your javascript variables properly because this can break whatever it is you are doing.
CraigHarris at gmail dot com
19-Feb-2010 09:55
Be aware that json_decode() will return null if you pass it a JSON encoded string.
<?php echo json_encode('Some String'); ?>
"Some String"
<?php echo json_decode(json_encode('Some String')); ?>
NULL
<?php // expected output ?>
Some String
php at hm2k.org
11-Feb-2010 01:45
If var_dump produces NULL, you may be experiencing JSONP aka JSON with padding, here's a quick fix...
<?php
//remove padding
$body=preg_replace('/.+?({.+}).+/','$1',$body);
// now, process the JSON string
$result = json_decode($body);
var_dump($result);
?>
nix
29-Jan-2010 12:39
Be aware, when decoding JSON strings, where an empty string is a key, this library replaces the empty string with "_empty_".
So the following code gives an unexpected result:
<?php
var_dump(json_decode('{"":"arbitrary"}'));
?>
The result is as follows:
object(stdClass)#1 (1) {
["_empty_"]=>
string(6) "arbitrary"
}
Any subsequent key named "_empty_" (or "" [the empty string] again) will overwrite the value.
yohan dot widyakencana at kreators dot com
28-Jan-2010 09:37
When in php 5.2.3, I found that json_decode 4000000000 float value into integer value resulting int(-294967296) from var_dump function
When in php 5.3.x, php correctly returning float(4000000000)
thank you for people creating & upgrading php
Yohan W.
colin.mollenhour.com
21-Jan-2010 07:51
For those of you wanting json_decode to be a little more lenient (more like Javascript), here is a wrapper:
<?php
function json_decode_nice($json, $assoc = FALSE){
$json = str_replace(array("\n","\r"),"",$json);
$json = preg_replace('/([{,])(\s*)([^"]+?)\s*:/','$1"$3":',$json);
return json_decode($json,$assoc);
}
?>
Some examples of accepted syntax:
<?php
$json = '{a:{b:"c",d:["e","f",0]}}';
$json =
'{
a : {
b : "c",
"d.e.f": "g"
}
}';
?>
If your content needs to have newlines, do this:
<?php
$string = "This
Text
Has
Newlines";
$json = '{withnewlines:'.json_encode($string).'}';
?>
Note: This does not fix trailing commas or single quotes.
wesgeek at gmx dot com
24-Dec-2009 07:22
If you are having issues with magic_quotes_gpc being turned on and can't disable it use json_decode(stripslashes($json)).
benny at zami-nospam-nga dot com
15-Oct-2009 11:35
I pulled my hair off for hours trying to get rid of strange backslashes in my incoming JSON-data in POST-pool, making it impossible to decode the incoming JSON-data.
For those of you facing the same problem:
just make sure you disable 'magic_quotes_gpc' in your php.ini and the incoming data will not be pseudo-escaped anymore. Now your incoming JSON-data should just be decoded fine.
Maybe this will help.
simonKenyonShepard at trisis dot co dot uk
14-Oct-2009 08:23
BEWARE!
json_decode will NOT WORK if there ARE LINE BREAKS in the JSON!
Use str_replace to get rid of them.
confusioner at msn dot com
17-Jul-2009 02:33
if you can not decode unicode characters with json_decode, use addslashes() while using json_encode. The problem comes from unicode chars starting with \ such as \u30d7
$json_data = addslashes(json_encode($unicode_string_or_array));
Nick Telford
25-Jun-2009 01:06
In PHP <= 5.1.6 trying to decode an integer value that's > PHP_INT_MAX will result in an intger of PHP_INT_MAX.
In PHP 5.2+ decoding an integer > PHP_INT_MAX will cause a conversion to a float.
Neither behaviour is perfect, capping at PHP_INT_MAX is marginally worse, but the float conversion loses precision.
If you expect to deal with large numbers at all, let alone in JSON, ensure you're using a 64-bit system.
premiersullivan at gmail dot com
21-Jun-2009 01:14
This function will remove trailing commas and encode in utf8, which might solve many people's problems. Someone might want to expand it to also change single quotes to double quotes, and fix other kinds of json breakage.
<?php
function mjson_decode($json)
{
return json_decode(removeTrailingCommas(utf8_encode($json)));
}
function removeTrailingCommas($json)
{
$json=preg_replace('/,\s*([\]}])/m', '$1', $json);
return $json;
}
?>
www at walidator dot info
30-May-2009 04:16
Here's a small function to decode JSON. It might not work on all data, but it works fine on something like this:
$json_data = '{"response": {
"Text":"Hello there"
},
"Details": null, "Status": 200}
';
===== CUt HERE :) =====
<?php
if ( !function_exists('json_decode') ){
function json_decode($json)
{
// Author: walidator.info 2009
$comment = false;
$out = '$x=';
for ($i=0; $i<strlen($json); $i++)
{
if (!$comment)
{
if ($json[$i] == '{') $out .= ' array(';
else if ($json[$i] == '}') $out .= ')';
else if ($json[$i] == ':') $out .= '=>';
else $out .= $json[$i];
}
else $out .= $json[$i];
if ($json[$i] == '"') $comment = !$comment;
}
eval($out . ';');
return $x;
}
}
?>
Gravis
09-May-2009 04:38
with two lines you can convert your string from JavaScript toSource() (see http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_toSource.asp) output format to JSON accepted format. this works with subobjects too!
note: toSource() is part of JavaScript 1.3 but only implemented in Mozilla based javascript engines (not Opera/IE/Safari/Chrome).
<?php
$str = '({strvar:"string", number:40, boolvar:true, subobject:{substrvar:"sub string", subsubobj:{deep:"deeply nested"}, strnum:"56"}, false_val:false, false_str:"false"})'; // example javascript object toSource() output
$str = substr($str, 1, strlen($str) - 2); // remove outer ( and )
$str = preg_replace("/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+?):/" , "\"$1\":", $str); // fix variable names
$output = json_decode($str, true);
var_dump($output);
?>
var_dump output:
array(6) {
["strvar"]=>
string(6) "string"
["number"]=>
int(40)
["boolvar"]=>
bool(true)
["subobject"]=>
array(3) {
["substrvar"]=>
string(10) "sub string"
["subsubobj"]=>
array(1) {
["deep"]=>
string(13) "deeply nested"
}
["strnum"]=>
string(2) "56"
}
["false_val"]=>
bool(false)
["false_str"]=>
string(5) "false"
}
hope this saves someone some time.
jan at hooda dot de
20-Dec-2008 05:20
This function will convert a "normal" json to an array.
<?php
function json_code ($json) {
//remove curly brackets to beware from regex errors
$json = substr($json, strpos($json,'{')+1, strlen($json));
$json = substr($json, 0, strrpos($json,'}'));
$json = preg_replace('/(^|,)([\\s\\t]*)([^:]*) (([\\s\\t]*)):(([\\s\\t]*))/s', '$1"$3"$4:', trim($json));
return json_decode('{'.$json.'}', true);
}
$json_data = '{
a: 1,
b: 245,
c with whitespaces: "test me",
d: "function () { echo \"test\" }",
e: 5.66
}';
$jarr = json_code($json_data);
?>
Aaron Kardell
13-Nov-2008 04:39
Make sure you pass in utf8 content, or json_decode may error out and just return a null value. For a particular web service I was using, I had to do the following:
<?php
$contents = file_get_contents($url);
$contents = utf8_encode($contents);
$results = json_decode($contents);
?>
Hope this helps!
steven at acko dot net
06-Oct-2008 09:49
json_decode()'s handling of invalid JSON is very flaky, and it is very hard to reliably determine if the decoding succeeded or not. Observe the following examples, none of which contain valid JSON:
The following each returns NULL, as you might expect:
<?php
var_dump(json_decode('[')); // unmatched bracket
var_dump(json_decode('{')); // unmatched brace
var_dump(json_decode('{}}')); // unmatched brace
var_dump(json_decode('{error error}')); // invalid object key/value
notation
var_dump(json_decode('["\"]')); // unclosed string
var_dump(json_decode('[" \x "]')); // invalid escape code
Yet the following each returns the literal string you passed to it:
var_dump(json_decode(' [')); // unmatched bracket
var_dump(json_decode(' {')); // unmatched brace
var_dump(json_decode(' {}}')); // unmatched brace
var_dump(json_decode(' {error error}')); // invalid object key/value notation
var_dump(json_decode('"\"')); // unclosed string
var_dump(json_decode('" \x "')); // invalid escape code
?>
(this is on PHP 5.2.6)
Reported as a bug, but oddly enough, it was closed as not a bug.
[NOTE BY danbrown AT php DOT net: This was later re-evaluated and it was determined that an issue did in fact exist, and was patched by members of the Development Team. See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=45989 for details.]
jrevillini
26-Sep-2008 09:01
When decoding strings from the database, make sure the input was encoded with the correct charset when it was input to the database.
I was using a form to create records in the DB which had a content field that was valid JSON, but it included curly apostrophes. If the page with the form did not have
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
in the head, then the data was sent to the database with the wrong encoding. Then, when json_decode tried to convert the string to an object, it failed every time.
soapergem at gmail dot com
23-Aug-2008 08:59
There have been a couple of comments now alerting us to the fact that certain expressions that are valid JavaScript code are not permitted within json_decode. However, keep in mind that JSON is ***not*** JavaScript, but instead just a subset of JavaScript. As far as I can tell, this function is only allowing whatever is explicitly outlined in RFC 4627, the JSON spec.
For instance, ganswijk, the reason you can't use single quotes to enclose strings is because the spec makes no mention of allowing single quotes (and therefore they are not allowed). And the issue of adding an extra comma at the end of an array is likewise not technically permitted in strict JSON, even though it will work in JavaScript.
And xris, while the example you provided with an unenclosed string key within an object is valid JavaScript, JavaScript != JSON. If you read it closely, you'll see that the JSON spec clearly does not allow this. All JSON object keys must be enclosed in double-quotes.
Basically, if there's ever any question for what is permitted, just read the JSON spec: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4627
bizarr3_2006 at yahoo dot com
06-Aug-2008 04:47
If json_decode() failes, returns null, or returns 1, you should check the data you are sending to decode...
Check this online JSON validator... It sure helped me a lot.
http://www.jsonlint.com/
ganswijk at xs4all dot nl
06-Jul-2008 04:42
It was quite hard to figure out the allowed Javascript formats. Some extra remarks:
json_decode() doesn't seem to allow single quotes:
<?php
print_r(json_decode('[0,{"a":"a","b":"b"},2,3]')); //works
print_r(json_decode("[0,{'a':'a','b':'b'},2,3]")); //doesn't work
?>
json_decode() doesn't allow an extra comma in a list of entries:
<?php
print_r(json_decode('[0,1 ]')); //works
print_r(json_decode('[0,1,]')); //doesn't work
?>
(I like to write a comma behind every entry when the entries are spread over several lines.)
json_decode() does allow linefeeds in the data!
?>
xris / a t/ basilicom.de
27-Jun-2008 05:48
Please note: in javascript, the following is a valid object:
<?php
{ bar: "baz" }
?>
While PHP needs double quotes:
<?php
{ "bar": "baz" }
?>
phpben
15-Apr-2008 09:18
Re requiring to escape the forward slash:
I think PHP 5.2.1 had that problem, as I remember it occurring here when I posted that comment; but now I'm on 5.2.5 it doesn't, so it has obviously been fixed. The JSON one gets from all the browsers escape the forward slashes anyway.
steve at weblite dot ca
24-Jan-2008 12:25
For JSON support in older versions of PHP you can use the Services_JSON class, available at http://pear.php.net/pepr/pepr-proposal-show.php?id=198
<?php
if ( !function_exists('json_decode') ){
function json_decode($content, $assoc=false){
require_once 'Services/JSON.php';
if ( $assoc ){
$json = new Services_JSON(SERVICES_JSON_LOOSE_TYPE);
} else {
$json = new Services_JSON;
}
return $json->decode($content);
}
}
if ( !function_exists('json_encode') ){
function json_encode($content){
require_once 'Services/JSON.php';
$json = new Services_JSON;
return $json->encode($content);
}
}
?>
yasarbayar at gmail dot com
25-Jul-2007 11:13
It took me a while to find the right JSON string format grabbed from mysql to be used in json_decode(). Here is what i came up with:
Bad(s) (return NULL):
{30:'13',31:'14',32:'15'}
{[30:'13',31:'14',32:'15']}
{["30":"13","31":"14","32":"15"]}
Good :
[{"30":"13","31":"14","32":"15"}]
returns:
array(1) { [0]=> array(3) { [30]=> string(2) "13" [31]=> string(2) "14" [32]=> string(2) "15" } }
hope this saves sometime..
nospam (AT) hjcms (DOT) de
22-Apr-2007 06:15
You can't transport Objects or serialize Classes, json_* replace it bei stdClass!
<?php
$dom = new DomDocument( '1.0', 'utf-8' );
$body = $dom->appendChild( $dom->createElement( "body" ) );
$body->appendChild( $dom->createElement( "forward", "Hallo" ) );
$JSON_STRING = json_encode(
array(
"aArray" => range( "a", "z" ),
"bArray" => range( 1, 50 ),
"cArray" => range( 1, 50, 5 ),
"String" => "Value",
"stdClass" => $dom,
"XML" => $dom->saveXML()
)
);
unset( $dom );
$Search = "XML";
$MyStdClass = json_decode( $JSON_STRING );
// var_dump( "<pre>" , $MyStdClass , "</pre>" );
try {
throw new Exception( "$Search isn't a Instance of 'stdClass' Class by json_decode()." );
if ( $MyStdClass->$Search instanceof $MyStdClass )
var_dump( "<pre>instanceof:" , $MyStdClass->$Search , "</pre>" );
} catch( Exception $ErrorHandle ) {
echo $ErrorHandle->getMessage();
if ( property_exists( $MyStdClass, $Search ) ) {
$dom = new DomDocument( "1.0", "utf-8" );
$dom->loadXML( $MyStdClass->$Search );
$body = $dom->getElementsByTagName( "body" )->item(0);
$body->appendChild( $dom->createElement( "rewind", "Nice" ) );
var_dump( htmlentities( $dom->saveXML(), ENT_QUOTES, 'utf-8' ) );
}
}
?>
paul at sfdio dot com
20-Jan-2007 04:08
I've written a javascript function to get around this functions limitations and the limitations imposed by IE's lack of native support for json serialization. Rather than converting variables to a json formatted string to transfer them to the server this function converts any javascript variable to a string serialized for use as POST or GET data.
String js2php(Mixed);
js2php({foo:true, bar:false, baz: {a:1, b:2, c:[1, 2, 3]}}));
will return:
foo=true&bar=false&baz[a]=1&baz[b]=2&baz[c][0]=1&...etc
function js2php(obj,path,new_path) {
if (typeof(path) == 'undefined') var path=[];
if (typeof(new_path) != 'undefined') path.push(new_path);
var post_str = [];
if (typeof(obj) == 'array' || typeof(obj) == 'object') {
for (var n in obj) {
post_str.push(js2php(obj[n],path,n));
}
}
else if (typeof(obj) != 'function') {
var base = path.shift();
post_str.push(base + (path.length > 0 ? '[' + path.join('][') + ']' : '') + '=' + encodeURI(obj));
path.unshift(base);
}
path.pop();
return post_str.join('&');
}
Adrian Ziemkowski
13-Dec-2006 08:52
Beware when decoding JSON from JavaScript. Almost nobody uses quotes for object property names and none of the major browsers require it, but this function does! {a:1} will decode as NULL, whereas the ugly {"a":1} will decode correctly. Luckily the browsers accept the specification-style quotes as well.
giunta dot gaetano at sea-aeroportimilano dot it
04-Sep-2006 05:16
Take care that json_decode() returns UTF8 encoded strings, whereas PHP normally works with iso-8859-1 characters.
If you expect to receive json data comprising characters outside the ascii range, be sure to use utf8_decode to convert them:
$php_vlaues = utf8_decode(json_decode($somedata))
giunta dot gaetano at sea-aeroportimilano dot it
04-Sep-2006 12:20
Please note that this function does NOT convert back to PHP values all strings resulting from a call to json-encode.
Since the json spec says that "A JSON text is a serialized object or array", this function will return NULL when decoding any json string that does not represent either an object or an array.
To successfully encode + decode single php values such as strings, booleans, integers or floats, you will have to wrap them in an array before converting them.