Passing a Python list to PHP - Only achievable with JSON?

Question

I've been doing some research around and haven't found a way to solve the situation I'm faced with now.

I need to pass a Python list to PHP. I've been reading about doing it with JSON but I was wondering if it was possible without it.

My list looks something like this:

a_list = [0,['A1', 'A2', ['A3','A4']], ['B5', 'B2', ['B3','B4']]]

I have found how to pass simple values between Python and PHP but this is a bit more complicated.

Also, I have found on another question asked here something that works for dictionaries:

Python side:

import json

D = {'foo':1, 'baz': 2}

print json.dumps(D)

PHP side:

<?php 

$result = json_decode(exec('python myscript.py'), true);
echo $result['foo'];

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

The data needs to be serialized in one form or another. JSON is a simple and clean format (and human-readable) and is widely supported. You could use a dozen other encodings, but they'll only add to the complexity. Also, since you're exec-ing, you won't notice any performance difference from different encodings. — Dan Lecocq
– Dan Lecocq, Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 15:55

inspectorG4dget · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-16 15:56:29Z

1

You'll need to serialize the data to somehow, to send it across. Here are a couple of ways to do it:

JSON
Protobuf
Write the data out to a text file in python and read it back in with PHP
Start a server in your PHP program and have your python program write the data to it in some format over a socket

answered Jul 16, 2013 at 15:56

inspectorG4dget

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2 Comments

Cups Over a year ago

hmm... re: #3 could that be a session file I wonder .... if it was PHP that passed Python the key?

inspectorG4dget Over a year ago

possibly, but you'd have to ensure that PHP flushes everything to that file and closes it first; then, you'd open, write to it, and close it in python; an reopen in PHP. Basically, you want to avoid corruption at writing time. NB: Session file is not $_SESSION. It would be very awesome though, if I could get the memory address of a new empty PHP array and get python to write bytes directly to that memory address

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