json_decode to array

Question

I am trying to decode a JSON string into an array but i get the following error.

Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in C:\\w

Answer 1

According to the PHP Documentation json_decode function has a parameter named assoc which convert the returned objects into associative arrays

 mixed json_decode ( string $json [, bool $assoc = FALSE ] )

Since assoc parameter is FALSE by default, You have to set this value to TRUE in order to retrieve an array.

Examine the below code for an example implication:

$json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}';
var_dump(json_decode($json));
var_dump(json_decode($json, true));

which outputs:

object(stdClass)#1 (5) {
    ["a"] => int(1)
    ["b"] => int(2)
    ["c"] => int(3)
    ["d"] => int(4)
    ["e"] => int(5)
}

array(5) {
    ["a"] => int(1)
    ["b"] => int(2)
    ["c"] => int(3)
    ["d"] => int(4)
    ["e"] => int(5)
}