JS JSON not parsed by PHP json_decode

Question

I have an issue with parsing JSON data by json_decode PHP function. The issue is that the JSON I receive is not properly formatted. It looks as follows:

"{ user:1 ,product:4 ,commentCount: 1 ,comment:'All fine! Well done.' ,commentDate:{ year:2015 ,month:8 ,day:19 } , likes:8 }"

When I try to decode this string with json_decode PHP function I get NULL. Is it possible to properly format this string with a preg_replace function

EDIT: I found this code on the web but it only wraps the variable names in the quotes. The values are still as they were and json_decode still returns NULL.

// fix variable names
$PHPJSON = preg_replace( '/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+?):/' , '"$1":', $PHPJSON );

Yes, I know. The question is if it is possible to format it correctly with the use of preg_replace? — peyn
– peyn, Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 14:34
I do not create it. I receive it from a third party. I am not able to change it before receiving. — peyn
– peyn, Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 14:36
Thats what I expected, you should at least tell them of their error though, maybe they will fix it — RiggsFolly
– RiggsFolly, Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 14:37

miller · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-19 14:43:06Z

1

Working solution for your malformed json:

$json = "{ user:1 ,product:4 ,commentCount: 1 ,comment:'All fine! Well done.' ,commentDate:{ year:2015 ,month:8 ,day:19 } , likes:8 }";

$json = preg_replace('/(,|\{)[ \t\n]*(\w+)[ ]*:[ ]*/','$1"$2":',$json);
$json = preg_replace('/":\'?([^\[\]\{\}]*?)\'?[ \n\t]*(,"|\}$|\]$|\}\]|\]\}|\}|\])/','":"$1"$2',$json);

var_dump($json);

var_dump(json_decode($json));

But in general you need to wrap object param in double quotes "arg":1. Non-numeric values also. Just like this:

var_dump(json_decode('{"user":1}'));
var_dump(json_last_error());

The second function returns you id of an error, if there was any. Check the php manual for error codes identification

edited Aug 19, 2015 at 14:43

answered Aug 19, 2015 at 14:35

miller

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6 Comments

RiggsFolly Over a year ago

He knows it is not well formed JSON, this is not an answer

miller Over a year ago

Updated my answer with solution

RiggsFolly Over a year ago

Thats nice -1 removed

peyn Over a year ago

Thanks but I have already checked the PHP manual. The issue still persists though - the JSON is still wrongly formatted.

miller Over a year ago

Do you used preg_replace's from my answer? On PHP 5.4 works just fine.

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