PHP to feed the json_decode() function with an PHP Array?

Question

I have a proper .json physical file and i read it from PHP by parsing it.

Let's say the sales.json contains:

{
    "custid" : "7761", 
    "items" : [
        {
            "itemcode"  : "A11231G",
            "suppliers" : [
                {
                    "id" : "s10001",
                    "name" : "Benny & John",
                },
                            {
                    "id" : "s10004",
                    "name" : "Colorado Dimension",
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Then i consume it from PHP:

$sales = json_decode( file_get_contents("store/sales.json"), true );

There is no problem and $sales is already become an Array which is ok.

Now for some reason, i want to feed that json_decode() function with an PHP Array (instead of the .json physical file).

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I know it is the dumb way that i am actually doing like converting, Array -> json -> Array, which is finally Array to Array.

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But for whatever reason i have,

• Even if i have a PHP Array() with the correct structure, if i use json_encode($phpArray), then to feed as json_decode( json_encode($phpArray), true ), will it give the exact object like i get from json_decode("sales.json") file?
• (or) how can i feed the json_decode function with a PHP Array() object i have?

Answer 1

Actually, json_decode returns a STD object, not an array. To get an array from a JSON string you need to use json_decode($string, true).