Loop through JSON with php, and write to it. Output is null

Question

My goal is to loop through each Item within the JSON and add an additional key called "modal" to each "Item", and the value paired with that key that would contain html. I stripped down my code below.

I'm able to add 'modal' to each 'Item', however the value somehow gets set to null, instead of the html I would like it to be.

JSON file:

{"Item":{
"thumbnail":"http://...",
  "title": "Item title"
},
"Item":{
  "thumbnail":"http://...",
  "title": "Item title"
}}

php:

$json_a=json_decode($json, true);

foreach ($json_a['Item'] as &$obj){
    $out = '<img src=\"' . $obj['thumbnail'] . '\">';
    $out .= '<span>' . $obj['title'] . '</span>';

    $obj['modal'] = $out; //value of $out doesn't get passed in, instead the value becomes null.
}

$json_a=json_encode($json_a);
print_r($json_a);

json output:

...{'modal': null}...

Edited the JSON to be valid. It comes from Amazon's product API, I shortened it for this example and made it invalid.

The JSON actually comes from an API, i shortened it to give an example. I caused the json to become invalid, however JSON can have duplicate keys. — splars
– splars, Commented Nov 18, 2012 at 21:41

Botond Balázs · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-18 21:17:04Z

3

Your JSON is invalid. It is an object with duplicate keys ("Item"). You should use an array instead:

[
    {
        "thumbnail": "...",
        "title": "..."
    },
    {
        "thumbnail": "...",
        "title": "..."
    }
]

Then you can iterate over it and add 'modal' to all elements:

$json_a = json_decode($json, true);

foreach ($json_a as &$obj) {
    $out = '<img src=\"' . $obj['thumbnail'] . '\">';
    $out .= '<span>' . $obj['title'] . '</span>';

    $obj['modal'] = $out;
}

$json_a = json_encode($json_a);
print_r($json_a);

answered Nov 18, 2012 at 21:17

Botond Balázs

2,5001 gold badge25 silver badges35 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Baba · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-18 21:17:43Z

1

Its simple your json is not valid

{
    "Item": {
        "thumbnail": "http://...",
        "title": "Item title",
                             ^---- This should not be here

    },

    "Item": {
       ^-------------- Duplicate name 
        "thumbnail": "http://...",
        "title": "Item title",
                             ^---- This should not be here

    }
}

The main issue is that you need to generate your object or array properly using json_encode if you are using PHP for the generation

answered Nov 18, 2012 at 21:17

Baba

95.3k29 gold badges172 silver badges222 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Loop through JSON with php, and write to it. Output is null

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related