How to pass array values from PHP to JavaScript

Question

I have a PHP array here:

$newArray = array(4,27,34,52,54,59,61,68,78,82,85,87,91,93,100);

I want this PHP array to be passed on to my JavaScript code to make my 'data' variable in my JavaScript the same as the array I declared on my PHP script. Here is my JavaScript code:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {

    data:  [4,27,34,52,54,59,61,68,78,82,85,87,91,93,100];

});
</script>

My idea is just embed the $newArray directly like this:

data: <?php $newArray ?>

But it doesn't work. How would I do it? Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Just doing

data: <?php $newArray ?>

wouldn't output the contents of $newArray, you'd still need to output as well, by doing either

echo $newArray
print $newArray

(Try that and you'll get a different error ;)) But even then, it won't be in the format that you want, so you'll want to use json_encode encode on it to format in a way that javascript can read it, like so

data: <?php echo json_encode($newArray) ?>;

Answer 2

Use PHP's built in json_encode() function like this:

$array = array("item_1" => 1, "item_2"=> 2);
$json = json_encode($array);

Then pass that array to your JavaScript (via AJAX or some other method) and decode with the jQuery function $.parseJSON() like this:

$(function(){
    var json = $.parseJSON(passedFromPHP);
});

This will give you a JSON object that you can manipulate with JavaScript.

Answer 3

You can also do this:

data: [<?php echo implode(',', $newArray); ?>];