PROBLEM :

We get a strange error using json_decode(). It decode correctly the data, but when we try to access info inside the array we get the following:

Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in
C:\Users\Wiki\software\wikitechy.php on line 108

We tried to do: $result[‘context’] where $result has the data returned by json_decode()

php json

SOLUTION 1:

The function json_decode() returns an object by default.

Access the data :

var_dump($result->context);

If we have identifiers like from-date (the hyphen would cause a PHP error when using the above method) we have to write the following:

var_dump($result->{'from-date'});

• If we have identifiers like from-date (the hyphen would cause a PHP error when using the above method) we have to write the following:

var_dump($result->{'from-date'});

• If we need an array we can do the following:

$result = json_decode($json, true);

• Or cast the object to an array:

$result = (array) json_decode($json);

SOLUTION 2:

• Use the second parameter of json_decode to make it return an array:

$result = json_decode($data, true);

SOLUTION 3:

• Use true as the second parameter to json_decode.
• This will decode the json into an associative array instead of stdObject instances:

$my_array = json_decode($my_json, true);

SOLUTION 4:

• If we call json_decode($somestring) we will get an Object and we need to access like $object->key,
• But if we call json_decode($somestring, true) we will get an array and can access like $array[‘key’]

SOLUTION 5:

We can convert stdClass object to array :

$array = (array)$stdClass;

SOLUTION 6:

function:

mixed json_decode ( string $json [, bool $assoc = false [, int $depth = 512 [, int $options = 0 ]]] )

• When param is false, which is default, it will return an appropriate php type.
• When param is true, it will return associative arrays.
• It will return NULL on error.
• If we want to fetch value through array, set assoc to true.

SOLUTION 7:

we must access it using -> since its an object.

Change our code from:

$result['context'];

To:

$result->context;

SOLUTION 8:

• print_r — Prints human-readable information about a variable
• When we use json_decode();, we get an object of type stdClass as return type.
• The arguments, which are to be passed inside of print_r() should either be an array or a string. Hence, we cannot pass an object inside of print_r(). There are two ways to deal with this.

1. Cast the object to array.
This can be achieved as follows.

$a = (array)$object;

2. By accessing the key of the Object
when we use json_decode(); function, it returns an Object of stdClass. we can access the elements of the object with the help of -> Operator.

$value = $object->key;

• Use multiple keys to extract the sub elements incase if the object has nested arrays.

$value = $object->key1->key2->key3...;

Their are many options to print_r() like var_dump(); and var_export();