Pretty-Printing JSON with PHP

Question

I\'m building a PHP script that feeds JSON data to another script. My script builds data into a large associative array, and then outputs the data using json_encode

Answer 1

Classic case for a recursive solution. Here's mine:

class JsonFormatter {
    public static function prettyPrint(&$j, $indentor = "\t", $indent = "") {
        $inString = $escaped = false;
        $result = $indent;

        if(is_string($j)) {
            $bak = $j;
            $j = str_split(trim($j, '"'));
        }

        while(count($j)) {
            $c = array_shift($j);
            if(false !== strpos("{[,]}", $c)) {
                if($inString) {
                    $result .= $c;
                } else if($c == '{' || $c == '[') {
                    $result .= $c."\n";
                    $result .= self::prettyPrint($j, $indentor, $indentor.$indent);
                    $result .= $indent.array_shift($j);
                } else if($c == '}' || $c == ']') {
                    array_unshift($j, $c);
                    $result .= "\n";
                    return $result;
                } else {
                    $result .= $c."\n".$indent;
                } 
            } else {
                $result .= $c;
                $c == '"' && !$escaped && $inString = !$inString;
                $escaped = $c == '\\' ? !$escaped : false;
            }
        }

        $j = $bak;
        return $result;
    }
}

Usage:

php > require 'JsonFormatter.php';
php > $a = array('foo' => 1, 'bar' => 'This "is" bar', 'baz' => array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => '"3"'));
php > print_r($a);
Array
(
    [foo] => 1
    [bar] => This "is" bar
    [baz] => Array
        (
            [a] => 1
            [b] => 2
            [c] => "3"
        )

)
php > echo JsonFormatter::prettyPrint(json_encode($a));
{
    "foo":1,
    "bar":"This \"is\" bar",
    "baz":{
        "a":1,
        "b":2,
        "c":"\"3\""
    }
}

Cheers

Answer 2

Many users suggested that you use

echo json_encode($results, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

Which is absolutely right. But it's not enough, the browser needs to understand the type of data, you can specify the header just before echo-ing the data back to the user.

header('Content-Type: application/json');

This will result in a well formatted output.

Or, if you like extensions you can use JSONView for Chrome.

Answer 3

Simple way for php>5.4: like in Facebook graph

$Data = array('a' => 'apple', 'b' => 'banana', 'c' => 'catnip');
$json= json_encode($Data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
header('Content-Type: application/json');
print_r($json);

Result in browser

{
    "a": "apple",
    "b": "banana",
    "c": "catnip"
}

Answer 4

This function will take JSON string and indent it very readable. It also should be convergent,

prettyPrint( $json ) === prettyPrint( prettyPrint( $json ) )

Input

{"key1":[1,2,3],"key2":"value"}

Output

{
    "key1": [
        1,
        2,
        3
    ],
    "key2": "value"
}

Code

function prettyPrint( $json )
{
    $result = '';
    $level = 0;
    $in_quotes = false;
    $in_escape = false;
    $ends_line_level = NULL;
    $json_length = strlen( $json );

    for( $i = 0; $i < $json_length; $i++ ) {
        $char = $json[$i];
        $new_line_level = NULL;
        $post = "";
        if( $ends_line_level !== NULL ) {
            $new_line_level = $ends_line_level;
            $ends_line_level = NULL;
        }
        if ( $in_escape ) {
            $in_escape = false;
        } else if( $char === '"' ) {
            $in_quotes = !$in_quotes;
        } else if( ! $in_quotes ) {
            switch( $char ) {
                case '}': case ']':
                    $level--;
                    $ends_line_level = NULL;
                    $new_line_level = $level;
                    break;

                case '{': case '[':
                    $level++;
                case ',':
                    $ends_line_level = $level;
                    break;

                case ':':
                    $post = " ";
                    break;

                case " ": case "\t": case "\n": case "\r":
                    $char = "";
                    $ends_line_level = $new_line_level;
                    $new_line_level = NULL;
                    break;
            }
        } else if ( $char === '\\' ) {
            $in_escape = true;
        }
        if( $new_line_level !== NULL ) {
            $result .= "\n".str_repeat( "\t", $new_line_level );
        }
        $result .= $char.$post;
    }

    return $result;
}

Answer 5

If you are working with MVC

try doing this in your controller

public function getLatestUsers() {
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    echo $this->model->getLatestUsers(); // this returns json_encode($somedata, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)
}

then if you call /getLatestUsers you will get a pretty JSON output ;)

Answer 6

PHP 5.4 offers the JSON_PRETTY_PRINT option for use with the json_encode() call.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php

<?php
...
$json_string = json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);