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Asked: 2026-05-15T01:25:44+00:00

I find myself converting between array and object all the time in PHP application

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I find myself converting between array and object all the time in PHP application that uses couchDB and Ajax. Of course I am also converting objects to JSON and back (for sometimes couchdb but mostly Ajax), but this is not so much disturbing my workflow.

At the present I have php objects that are returned by the CouchDB modules I use and on the other hand I have the old habbit to return arrays like array(“error”=>”not found”,”data”=>$dataObj) from my functions. This leads to a mixed occurence of real php objects and nested arrays and I cast with (object) or (array) if necessary. The worst thing is that I know more or less by heart what a function returns, but not what type (array or object), so I often run into type errors.

My plan is now to always cast arrays to objects before returning from a function. Of course this implies a lot of refactoring.

Is this the right way to go? What about the conversion overhead? Other ideas or tips?

Edit: Kenaniah’s answer suggests I should go the other way, this would mean I’d cast everything to arrays. And for all the Ajax / JSON stuff and also for CouchDB I would use 

$myarray = json_decode($json_data,$assoc = true); //EDIT: changed to true, whcih is what I really meant

Even more work to change all the CouchDB and Ajax functions but in the end I have better code.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Generally speaking, you should always use arrays unless there is a good reason to use objects. And the only good reason to use objects over arrays in PHP is if you need some sort of functionality for your data that arrays do not provide (such as private / protected variables, methods, object magic, defined structure, etc). If you’re dealing strictly with data, array format is better because you can easily manipulate your data using PHP’s vast array of array functions (no pun intended).

    UPDATE:

    If all you are doing is passing data between two points, arrays are much more suited for that purpose. The only reason (as far as I can tell) that one would ever use an object over an array as a mere container for data is if the receiving side needed a guaranteed format (think interfaces, etc).

    From what I can tell, you should be returning arrays from CouchDB to avoid having to convert altogether.

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