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I am having a problem using json_encode to generate a json encoded string from an array.

The section of the array in question looks like this

RatingDistribution (Array, 11 elements)
    0 (Array, 1 element)
        0 (String, 3 characters ) 4.5
    1 (Array, 1 element)
        1 (String, 4 characters ) 11.9
    2 (Array, 1 element)

But produces this in the string:

"RatingDistribution":[["4.5"],{"1":"11.9"},

I would expect this:

"RatingDistribution":[{"0":"4.5"},{"1":"11.9"},

All I'm doing is this:

$result = json_encode($array);

Have I done something wrong or do I need more code to ensure the 0 key is present?

Cheers Andy

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1  
can you post the php code where you get the array? or print_r the array? Looks like your forearch is wrong. – Federico Giust Mar 8 at 9:37
I think it screws up on the second element (index 1) becuase it's sub array starts as 1 and thus gets interpreted as a string key. – TFennis Mar 8 at 9:39

marked as duplicate by hakre, dragon112, Ocramius, Jon, Jocelyn Mar 8 at 16:41

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

The result you are getting should be expected; json_encode detects that you are only using numeric keys in the array, so it translates that to an array instead of an object in JSON. Most of the time, that's exactly what you want to do.

If for some reason you don't (why?), in PHP >= 5.3 you can use the JSON_FORCE_OBJECT flag to get your desired output:

$result = json_encode($array, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
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the behaviour is a little odd, for example the first value will decode to an array where all subsequent values will be objects. – user2147830 Mar 8 at 10:29
I suspect we will have to use JSON_FORCE_OBJECT – user2147830 Mar 8 at 10:30
@user2147830: Not really odd IMHO. The second array's first key is not 0, which is enough for the heuristic to decide "OK, this is an associative array". – Jon Mar 8 at 10:39
up vote 0 down vote

Cou can try to cast the array key to a string for example with strval or (string).

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This should be comment! – sandip Mar 8 at 9:39
That was my first thought but it made no difference, enclosing it in quotes does but it makes very messy json :) – user2147830 Mar 8 at 10:46

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