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

If you are on firefox install JSONovich. Not really a PHP solution I know, but it does the trick for development purposes/debugging.

Answer 2

You can modify Kendall Hopkins' answer a little in the switch statement to get a pretty clean looking and nicely indented printout by passing a json string into the following:

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;
                $char.="<br>";
                for($index=0;$index<$level-1;$index++){$char.="-----";}
                break;

            case '{': case '[':
                $level++;
                $char.="<br>";
                for($index=0;$index<$level;$index++){$char.="-----";}
                break;
            case ',':
                $ends_line_level = $level;
                $char.="<br>";
                for($index=0;$index<$level;$index++){$char.="-----";}
                break;

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

            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;
}

echo "RESULTS ARE: <br><br>$result";
return $result;

}

Now just run the function prettyPrint( $your_json_string ); inline in your php and enjoy the printout. If you're a minimalist and don't like brackets for some reason, you can get rid of those easily by replacing the $char.="<br>"; with $char="<br>"; in the top three switch cases on $char. Here's what you get for a google maps API call for the city of Calgary

RESULTS ARE: 

{
- - - "results" : [
- - -- - - {
- - -- - -- - - "address_components" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - - {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "long_name" : "Calgary"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "short_name" : "Calgary"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "types" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "locality"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "political" ]
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - - {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "long_name" : "Division No. 6"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "short_name" : "Division No. 6"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "types" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "administrative_area_level_2"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "political" ]
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - - {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "long_name" : "Alberta"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "short_name" : "AB"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "types" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "administrative_area_level_1"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "political" ]
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - - {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "long_name" : "Canada"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "short_name" : "CA"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "types" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "country"
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "political" ]
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - - ]
- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - - "formatted_address" : "Calgary, AB, Canada"
- - -- - -- - - "geometry" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - - "bounds" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "northeast" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lat" : 51.18383
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lng" : -113.8769511 }
- - -- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "southwest" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lat" : 50.84240399999999
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lng" : -114.27136 }
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - - "location" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lat" : 51.0486151
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lng" : -114.0708459 }
- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - - "location_type" : "APPROXIMATE"
- - -- - -- - -- - - "viewport" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "northeast" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lat" : 51.18383
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lng" : -113.8769511 }
- - -- - -- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "southwest" : {
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lat" : 50.84240399999999
- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - - "lng" : -114.27136 }
- - -- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -- - - }
- - -- - -
- - -- - -- - - "place_id" : "ChIJ1T-EnwNwcVMROrZStrE7bSY"
- - -- - -- - - "types" : [
- - -- - -- - -- - - "locality"
- - -- - -- - -- - - "political" ]
- - -- - - }
- - - ]

- - - "status" : "OK" }

Answer 3

This solution makes 'really pretty' JSON. Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but it lets you visualise the JSON better.

/**
 * takes an object parameter and returns the pretty json format.
 * this is a space saving version that uses 2 spaces instead of the regular 4
 *
 * @param $in
 *
 * @return string
 */
function pretty_json ($in): string
{
  return preg_replace_callback('/^ +/m',
    function (array $matches): string
    {
      return str_repeat(' ', strlen($matches[0]) / 2);
    }, json_encode($in, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_HEX_APOS)
  );
}

/**
 * takes a JSON string an adds colours to the keys/values
 * if the string is not JSON then it is returned unaltered.
 *
 * @param string $in
 *
 * @return string
 */

function markup_json (string $in): string
{
  $string  = 'green';
  $number  = 'darkorange';
  $null    = 'magenta';
  $key     = 'red';
  $pattern = '/("(\\\\u[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}|\\\\[^u]|[^\\\\"])*"(\s*:)?|\b(true|false|null)\b|-?\d+(?:\.\d*)?(?:[eE][+\-]?\d+)?)/';
  return preg_replace_callback($pattern,
      function (array $matches) use ($string, $number, $null, $key): string
      {
        $match  = $matches[0];
        $colour = $number;
        if (preg_match('/^"/', $match))
        {
          $colour = preg_match('/:$/', $match)
            ? $key
            : $string;
        }
        elseif ($match === 'null')
        {
          $colour = $null;
        }
        return "<span style='color:{$colour}'>{$match}</span>";
      }, str_replace(['<', '>', '&'], ['&lt;', '&gt;', '&amp;'], $in)
   ) ?? $in;
}

public function test_pretty_json_object ()
{
  $ob       = new \stdClass();
  $ob->test = 'unit-tester';
  $json     = pretty_json($ob);
  $expected = <<<JSON
{
  "test": "unit-tester"
}
JSON;
  $this->assertEquals($expected, $json);
}

public function test_pretty_json_str ()
{
  $ob   = 'unit-tester';
  $json = pretty_json($ob);
  $this->assertEquals("\"$ob\"", $json);
}

public function test_markup_json ()
{
  $json = <<<JSON
[{"name":"abc","id":123,"warnings":[],"errors":null},{"name":"abc"}]
JSON;
  $expected = <<<STR
[
  {
    <span style='color:red'>"name":</span> <span style='color:green'>"abc"</span>,
    <span style='color:red'>"id":</span> <span style='color:darkorange'>123</span>,
    <span style='color:red'>"warnings":</span> [],
    <span style='color:red'>"errors":</span> <span style='color:magenta'>null</span>
  },
  {
    <span style='color:red'>"name":</span> <span style='color:green'>"abc"</span>
  }
]
STR;

  $output = markup_json(pretty_json(json_decode($json)));
  $this->assertEquals($expected,$output);
}

}

Answer 4

I have used this:

echo "<pre>".json_encode($response, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES)."</pre>";

Or use php headers as below:

header('Content-type: application/json; charset=UTF-8');
echo json_encode($response, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);

Answer 5

I realize this question is asking about how to encode an associative array to a pretty-formatted JSON string, so this doesn't directly answer the question, but if you have a string that is already in JSON format, you can make it pretty simply by decoding and re-encoding it (requires PHP >= 5.4):

$json = json_encode(json_decode($json), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

Example:

header('Content-Type: application/json');
$json_ugly = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}';
$json_pretty = json_encode(json_decode($json_ugly), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
echo $json_pretty;

This outputs:

{
    "a": 1,
    "b": 2,
    "c": 3,
    "d": 4,
    "e": 5
}

Answer 6

print_r pretty print for PHP

Example PHP

function print_nice($elem,$max_level=10,$print_nice_stack=array()){
    if(is_array($elem) || is_object($elem)){
        if(in_array($elem,$print_nice_stack,true)){
            echo "<font color=red>RECURSION</font>";
            return;
        }
        $print_nice_stack[]=&$elem;
        if($max_level<1){
            echo "<font color=red>nivel maximo alcanzado</font>";
            return;
        }
        $max_level--;
        echo "<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=100%>";
        if(is_array($elem)){
            echo '<tr><td colspan=2 style="background-color:#333333;"><strong><font color=white>ARRAY</font></strong></td></tr>';
        }else{
            echo '<tr><td colspan=2 style="background-color:#333333;"><strong>';
            echo '<font color=white>OBJECT Type: '.get_class($elem).'</font></strong></td></tr>';
        }
        $color=0;
        foreach($elem as $k => $v){
            if($max_level%2){
                $rgb=($color++%2)?"#888888":"#BBBBBB";
            }else{
                $rgb=($color++%2)?"#8888BB":"#BBBBFF";
            }
            echo '<tr><td valign="top" style="width:40px;background-color:'.$rgb.';">';
            echo '<strong>'.$k."</strong></td><td>";
            print_nice($v,$max_level,$print_nice_stack);
            echo "</td></tr>";
        }
        echo "</table>";
        return;
    }
    if($elem === null){
        echo "<font color=green>NULL</font>";
    }elseif($elem === 0){
        echo "0";
    }elseif($elem === true){
        echo "<font color=green>TRUE</font>";
    }elseif($elem === false){
        echo "<font color=green>FALSE</font>";
    }elseif($elem === ""){
        echo "<font color=green>EMPTY STRING</font>";
    }else{
        echo str_replace("\n","<strong><font color=red>*</font></strong><br>\n",$elem);
    }
}