Force PHP json_encode() to encode indexes as strings

Question

I have a an array setup as follows:

$myArray = array();
$myArray[] = "New array item 1";
$myArray[] = "New array item 2";
$myArray[] = "New array item 3";

When I run json_encode() on it it outputs the following:

["New array item 1","New array item 2","New array item 3"]

What I want is for the function to encode the indexes as strings:

{"0":"New array item 1","1":"New array item 2","2":"New array item 3"}

So that later I can remove say the first item without affecting the index of the second.

Is there an easy way to do this?

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '12 at 09:08

10

Use JSON_FORCE_OBJECT:

json_encode( $data, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT );

Requires PHP 5.3+

answered Nov 15 '12 at 09:08

Esailija

138,174
23
272
326

Is there no other way? I wanted to keep it as an array. – bbeckford Nov 15 '12 at 09:09
@bbeckford what do you mean? You'll still have the original array, it is not mutated or removed – Esailija Nov 15 '12 at 09:10
Well for instance I wouldn't be able to do this would I? $decodedArray = json_decode('{"0":"New array item 1","1":"New array item 2","2":"New array item 3"}'); $decodedArray[] = "New array item 4"; json_encode( $decodedArray, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT ); – bbeckford Nov 15 '12 at 09:10
1

@bbeckford If you're planning to use this array in JavaScript, it's best to know that the syntax doesn't allow Arrays with such indexes anyway. You'll get a `SyntaxError: Unexpected token :`. – Oleg Nov 15 '12 at 09:13
2

@bbeckford you should pass `true` as second parameter to `json_decode` – Esailija Nov 15 '12 at 09:15
@Esailija Ah I didn't know about that part of json_decode, that did it thanks a lot! – bbeckford Nov 15 '12 at 09:29

Marcin Orlowski · Answer 2 · 2016-04-24T23:55:49.867

4

Not exactly what you want but you can use JSON_FORCE_OBJECT option:

json_encode($myArray, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);

which would produce:

{"0":"New array item 1","1":"New array item 2","2":"New array item 3"}

Same if you cast your array to object:

json_encode((object)$myArray);

Alternatively:

$myArray = array(
  "0" => "New array item 1",
  "2" => "New array item 2",
  "3" => "New array item 3"
  );

 echo json_encode($myArray);

would give same:

{"0":"New array item 1","2":"New array item 2","3":"New array item 3"}

edited Apr 24 '16 at 23:55

answered Nov 15 '12 at 09:10

Marcin Orlowski

72,056
11
123
141

This works only if indexes are not continous. "When encoding an array, if the keys are not a continuous numeric sequence starting from 0, all keys are encoded as strings, and specified explicitly for each key-value pair." – morgar Apr 24 '16 at 21:45
@morgar: Read the manual again. It works for all cases because that's what `JSON_FORCE_OBJECT` is for. – Marcin Orlowski Apr 24 '16 at 23:54
2

5.3 release date is 30 June 2009, so what argument is that? – Marcin Orlowski Apr 25 '16 at 06:46

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 09:18

3

For PHP < 5.3 , use this method :

<?php   

$myArray = array();
$myArray[] = "New array item 1";
$myArray[] = "New array item 2";
$myArray[] = "New array item 3";

echo json_encode((object)$myArray); // typecast the array as object

?>

answered Nov 15 '12 at 09:18

DhruvPathak

42,059
16
116
175

Force PHP json_encode() to encode indexes as strings

3 Answers3

Linked