Question

I have an array in the database and it looks like this: {"hello":"world", "Test":["hello"]}, which is perfect for JSON.stringify, but when I select it from the database like this:

$metadata = $this->repository->getMetadata($id);

$data = json_encode($metadata);

return $this->render('AcmeQuotesBundle:Home:metadata.html.twig', array('data' => $data));

and put this in the template:

{% block body %}
    <script>
        var obj = {{ data|raw }}

        document.body.innerHTML = "";
        document.body.appendChild(document.createTextNode(JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4)));
    </script>
{% endblock %}

I get this output:

[
    {
        "quoteMetadata": "{\"hello\":\"world\", \"Test\":[\"hello\"]}"
    }
]

which is not what I want. All I want is the value of obj to be the native string – {"hello":"world", "Test":["hello"]} without "quoteMetadata":, without the quotation marks and without the "\" around the words. I tried using implode(), but I get notice:

Notice: Array to string conversion in C:\xampp\htdocs...

I’m using Symfony2, Twig and Doctrine2 and I’m doing all this because I want the string from the database to be shown in a easy for reading way like here – http://jsfiddle.net/AndyE/HZPVL/ If you have any ideas how to fix this or how to make it in another way, plase share!

---

EDIT

When I put var_dump($matadata) after $metadata = $this->repository->getMetadata($id);, I get this:

array(1) { [0]=> array(1) { ["quoteMetadata"]=> string(35) "{"hello":"world", "Test":["hello"]}" } } 

Answer 1

The issue is your metadata array isn’t clean; the bit you want is buried in an associative array inside a single-row array. So try:

$metadata = $this->repository->getMetadata($id);
return $this->render('AcmeQuotesBundle:Home:metadata.html.twig', array('data' => $metadata[0]['quoteMetadata']));