PHP read and write JSON from file

Question

I have the following JSON in a file list.txt:

{
"bgates":{"first":"Bill","last":"Gates"},
"sjobs":{"first":"Steve","last":"Jobs"}
}

How do I add "bross":{"first":"Bob","last":"Ross"} to my file using PHP?

Here's what I have so far:

<?php

$user = "bross";
$first = "Bob";
$last = "Ross";

$file = "list.txt";

$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file));

$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);

file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json));

?>

Which gives me a Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array on this line:

$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);

I'm using PHP5.2. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Peter Ajtai · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-11 23:45:29Z

91

The clue is in the error message - if you look at the documentation for json_decode note that it can take a second param, which controls whether it returns an array or an object - it defaults to object.

So change your call to

$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), true);

And it'll return an associative array and your code should work fine.

edited Sep 11, 2013 at 23:45

Peter Ajtai

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answered Jan 13, 2012 at 23:57

John Carter

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Comments

4EACH · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-15 12:21:40Z

29

The sample for reading and writing JSON in PHP:

$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file),TRUE);

$json[$user] = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);

file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json));

edited Feb 15, 2017 at 12:21

answered Mar 7, 2014 at 11:34

4EACH

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3 Comments

Richard Smith Over a year ago

The second argument to json_encode is not a boolean, so it's wrong to write json_encode($json, TRUE).

Richard Robertson Over a year ago

Per the docs (php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php) the second argument IS a boolean.

Richard Robertson Over a year ago

@PedroLobito - I was looking at the code given by 4EACH. There the only function that is used with the second argument as a boolean is json_decode. json_encode IS used later but without a second argument. Of course I can see that the author edited the code. It is unknown if that edit was to correct the use of the function.

Paker · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-14 00:57:31Z

8

Or just use $json as an object:

$json->$user = array("first" => $first, "last" => $last);

This is how it is returned without the second parameter (as an instance of stdClass).

edited Jan 14, 2012 at 0:57

Paker

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answered Jan 14, 2012 at 0:02

Liam Bailey

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Comments

nook · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-08 06:12:20Z

7

You need to make the decode function return an array by passing in the true parameter.

json_decode(file_get_contents($file),true);

edited Dec 8, 2013 at 6:12

nook

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answered Jan 13, 2012 at 23:57

aknosis

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Comments

Lubor Bílek · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-13 23:59:57Z

3

Try using second parameter for json_decode function:

$json = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), true);

answered Jan 13, 2012 at 23:59

Lubor Bílek

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Comments

Baby Groot · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-27 12:55:22Z

3

This should work for you to get the contents of list.txt file

$headers = array('http'=>array('method'=>'GET','header'=>'Content: type=application/json \r\n'.'$agent \r\n'.'$hash'));

$context=stream_context_create($headers);

$str = file_get_contents("list.txt",FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH,$context);

$str=utf8_encode($str);

$str=json_decode($str,true);

print_r($str);

edited Mar 27, 2013 at 12:55

Baby Groot

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answered Mar 27, 2013 at 12:26

Ur Friend

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1 Comment

Yvonne Aburrow Over a year ago

I just get Array as my output from that

Remi Guan · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-09 06:24:52Z

2

If you want to display the JSON data in well defined formate you can modify the code as:

file_put_contents($file, json_encode($json,TRUE));


$headers = array('http'=>array('method'=>'GET','header'=>'Content: type=application/json \r\n'.'$agent \r\n'.'$hash'));

$context=stream_context_create($headers);

$str = file_get_contents("list.txt",FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH,$context);

$str1=utf8_encode($str);

$str1=json_decode($str1,true);



foreach($str1 as $key=>$value)
{

    echo "key is: $key.\n";

    echo "values are: \t";
        foreach ($value as $k) {

        echo " $k. \t";
        # code...
    }
        echo "<br></br>";
        echo "\n";

}

edited Apr 9, 2016 at 6:24

Remi Guan

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answered Apr 9, 2016 at 5:58

user3762267

1 Comment

Mammouth Over a year ago

php has well-formatted printout available $data = ['a'=> [0, 1], 5, 'eagle']; json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

A.L · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-21 17:43:39Z

1

When you want to create json format it had to be in this format for it to read:

[ 
  {
    "":"",
    "":[
     {
       "":"",
       "":""
     }
    ]
  }
]

edited Apr 21, 2015 at 17:43

A.L

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answered Apr 21, 2015 at 16:28

markllibre

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