Question

Here is my code:

    var_dump(json_decode($data['event']->options['meals']['options'][0]['option'], true));
    echo '<br />';echo '<br />';
    var_dump($data['event']->options['meals']['options'][0]['option']);
    echo '<br />';echo '<br />';
    var_dump(json_decode('[{"name":"Petit Tenderloin","description":"Wrapped in Apple Wood Bacon, borsoun whipped mashed potatoes, roasted baby vegetable, with sun dried cherry sauce. "},{"name":"Chicken Piccatta","description":"In lemon caper sauce, served with a timbal of wild rice and vegetables. "}]', true));

Here is my output:

NULL

string(279) "[{"name":"Petit Tenderloin","description":"Wrapped in Apple Wood Bacon, borsoun whipped mashed potatoes, roasted baby vegetable, with sun dried cherry sauce. "},{"name":"Chicken Piccatta","description":"In lemon caper sauce, served with a timbal of wild rice and vegetables. "}]"

array(2) { [0]=> array(2) { ["name"]=> string(16) "Petit Tenderloin" ["description"]=> string(115) "Wrapped in Apple Wood Bacon, borsoun whipped mashed potatoes, roasted baby vegetable, with sun dried cherry sauce. " } [1]=> array(2) { ["name"]=> string(16) "Chicken Piccatta" ["description"]=> string(72) "In lemon caper sauce, served with a timbal of wild rice and vegetables. " } }

Why is it that when I put in a string literal I get the proper array, but when I pass in a variable I get NULL? I feel like I am missing something super simple….

EDIT: Found out reason
Looks like the variable has a new line character that naturally doesn’t show up in the HTML. Looks like the new line char breaks json_decode…

Anyone know of a way around that other than removing the new lines? (I’d prefer to keep them in if I can)

Answer 1

The unescaped new line character will break json_decode as that’s not valid JSON.

Previous question on escaping line breaks in JSON.

Check out eyelidlessness’ answer there for keeping the line-breaks. Short version is that you need to escape them, e.g.:

$text = str_replace("\n", "\\n", $text);

Alternatively, you may want to replace newlines with <br>, insetad of escaping them for rendering in a browser.

You’ve got GIGO. Not sure if you’re controlling the input, but if you are, then you should escape it on the front end, using json_encode, which will automatically escape (and thus preserve) the newlines.