php multidimensional array encode and decode json

Question

I have an array what I encode as json and I save it to database. The array looks like

 $myarray = array(
    'test'=>array('key1'=>'1',
                  'key2'=>'2',
                  'key3'=>'3'),
    'test2' =>array('key4'=>'1',
                   'key5'=>'<a href="myclass"></a>'
                  )
     );
json_encode($myarray);

the saved json in my database looks like

{

 "test":  {"key1":"1",
           "key2":"2",
           "key3":"3"
          },
 "test2": {"key4":"1",
           "key5":"<a href ="myclass"></a>"
           }
}

MYSQL save $sql = "UPDATE my_table SET params= '".json_encode($param )."' WHERE id ='".$key."'";

Than when I retrieve the json string from database and trying to rebuild the array with json_decode($json, true); outputs null

Answer 1

You could serialize the data rather than storing it as json.

$sql = "UPDATE table SET field='".serialize($myarray)."' WHERE ...";

Then when you want to recreate the array, just pull it out of the table and unserialize() it. It's not human readable in the database; however this technique is fast and works well for storing arrays in the db. If the data is needed by your js scripts then json_encode() it after you unserialize() it.

Answer 2

Have you tryed to use addslashes() and stripslashes() php functions ?

Try: To update your table:

$sql = "UPDATE my_table SET params='".addslashes(json_encode($myarray))."' WHERE id ='".$key."';";

to read from table:

$sql = "SELECT params FROM my_table WHERE id='".$key."';";
...code to read row...
$myparams = stripslashes($row['params']);

also you can try the a custom function for a multidimensional array from php manual called stripslashes_deep() see http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.stripslashes.php (EXAMPLE #2)

function stripslashes_deep($value)
{
    $value = is_array($value) ?
                array_map('stripslashes_deep', $value) :
                stripslashes($value);

    return $value;
}

// Example
$array = array("f\\'oo", "b\\'ar", array("fo\\'o", "b\\'ar"));
$array = stripslashes_deep($array);

print_r($array);

// Output    
Array
(
    [0] => f'oo
    [1] => b'ar
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => fo'o
            [1] => b'ar
        )

)