Question

I have the following JSON String

{
        "name":"Product",
        "properties":
        {
                "id":
                {
                        "type":"number",
                        "description":"Product identifier",
                        "required":true
                },
                "name":
                {
                        "type":"string",
                        "description":"Name of the product",
                        "required":true
                },
                "price":
                {
                        "type":"number",
                        "minimum":0,
                        "required":true
                },
                "tags":
                {
                        "type":"array",
                        "items":
                        {
                                "type":"string"
                        }
                },
                "stock":
                {
                        "type":"object",
                        "properties":
                        {
                                "warehouse":
                                {
                                        "type":"number"
                                },
                                "retail":
                                {
                                        "type":"number"
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}    

I would like to access

properties - > stock - > properties - > warehouse.

In python I can do the following.

f = open("c:/dir/jsondec.json")
data = json.load(f)
node = data['properties']['stock']['properties']['warehouse']
print str(node)

I’m trying to do the same thing in PHP. I know I can use json_decode() but what should be the correct syntax.
Also If I have an array within say within properties-> ID I could have done ['properties'][0]['id'] to access that. What would be the equivalent in php?

Answer 1

Version in Python

This is in Python:

f = open("c:/dir/jsondec.json")
data = json.load(f)
node = data['properties']['stock']['properties']['warehouse']
print str(node)

Version in PHP

And this is its equivalent in PHP:

$f = file_get_contents('c:/dir/jsondec.json');
$data = json_decode($f, true);
$node = $data['properties']['stock']['properties']['warehouse'];
echo $node;

“Gotchas” (or “slight differences”)

There is one difference however: f in Python version is opened file, while $f in PHP version is already a string.

As RPM correctly noted, there is another difference: arrays in PHP are converted to string “Array” when used in string context (see here: http://ideone.com/XJfSP), so you probably would like to use:

print_r($node);

or

var_dump($node);

instead of

echo $node;

to see the actual content of the array.

EDIT: Changed json_decode() result into array.