Parsing JSON in PHP

Question

I´ve got the following JSON string:

{"Data":{"Recipes":{"Recipe_5":{"ID":"5","TITLE":"Spaghetti Bolognese"},"Recipe_7":{"ID":"7","TITLE":"Wurstel"},"Recipe_9":{"ID":"9","TITLE":"Schnitzel"},"Recipe_10":{"ID":"10","TITLE":null},"Recipe_19":{"ID":"19","TITLE":null},"Recipe_20":{"ID":"20","TITLE":"Hundefutter"},"Recipe_26":{"ID":"26","TITLE":"Apfelstrudel"},"Recipe_37":{"ID":"37","TITLE":null},"Recipe_38":{"ID":"38","TITLE":"AENDERUNG"},"Recipe_39":{"ID":"39","TITLE":null},"Recipe_40":{"ID":"40","TITLE":"Schnitzel"},"Recipe_42":{"ID":"42","TITLE":"Release-Test"},"Recipe_43":{"ID":"43","TITLE":"Wurstel2"}},"recipes_id":{"ranking_1":"9","ranking_2":"10","ranking_3":"7","ranking_4":"5"}},"Message":null,"Code":200}

How can I parse it in PHP and extract a list of TITLEs?

In addition to not specifying in what language / with what tools you want to parse this JSON object: Where does the Spaghetti Bolognese in the end come from? This makes it malformed JSON. — Jan Pöschko
– Jan Pöschko, Commented Dec 15, 2011 at 16:04
Sorry, forget about that. Fore sure, it´s not a part of the JSON string. — user896692
– user896692, Commented Dec 15, 2011 at 16:09

Jan Pöschko · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-15 16:58:02Z

3

You can use the function json_decode to parse JSON data in PHP (>= 5.2.0, at least). Once you have a PHP object, it should be easy to iterate over all recipes/members and access their titles, using something like this:

$data = json_decode($json, true); // yields associative arrays instead of objects
foreach ($data['Data']['Recipes'] as $key => $recipe) {
    echo $recipe['TITLE'];
}

(Sorry I can't actually run this code right now. Hope it helps anyway.)

edited Dec 15, 2011 at 16:58

answered Dec 15, 2011 at 16:44

Jan Pöschko

5,6101 gold badge30 silver badges28 bronze badges

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

4 Comments

user896692 Over a year ago

Yes, I already have that! $obj = json_decode($jsonstring); Now, In my $obj is the JSON I posted above. But how can i iterate over the recipes? Sorry, I searched so much already but haven´t found it anywhere

Jan Pöschko Over a year ago

Using associative arrays and foreach should do the trick—see my updated answer.

user896692 Over a year ago

Wow great! My problem was that I didn´t have the "true" in the decode method. Why do I need that?

Jan Pöschko Over a year ago

As stated in the comment, the true results in an associative array being returned, as opposed to a plain PHP object. Associative arrays are easier being traversed, using foreach as you can see.

Jan Pöschko · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-15 16:16:22Z

0

If you want to do that in JavaScript, you can simply access JSON data like "normal" objects:

var jsonData = {
    "Data": {"Recipes": {"Recipe_5": {"ID":"5","TITLE":"Spaghetti Bolognese"}}}
    // more data
};
alert(jsonData.Data.Recipes.Recipe_5.TITLE);

This will print the TITLE of Recipe_5 in a message box.

EDIT:

If you want all the titles in a list, you can do something like this:

var titles = [];
for (var key in jsonData.Data.Recipes) {
    var recipe = jsonData.Data.Recipes[key];
    titles.push(recipe.TITLE);
}
alert(titles);

edited Dec 15, 2011 at 16:16

answered Dec 15, 2011 at 16:09

Jan Pöschko

5,6101 gold badge30 silver badges28 bronze badges

4 Comments

user896692 Over a year ago

Ok, I understand that. But what is, if I want the TITLE of each Recipe in the JSON string, so that I not have to know that Recipe_5 exists.

user896692 Over a year ago

I print it out with php... print_r($obj->Data->Recipes->Recipe_5->TITLE); for example gives me the title of recipe5, but I want to have all the Titles in Recipes

Jan Pöschko Over a year ago

Again, what do you want to do with these titles? I edited my answer to explain how to put all of them in a JavaScript array—don't know if that is what you want though.

Jan Pöschko Over a year ago

I edited your question so that it reflects you're interested in PHP and added a new, short answer. (I'm not sure whether this is the preferred way to handle this situation... is it, stackoverflow pros?)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Parsing JSON in PHP

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related