how to decode a json in php

Question

Here is my json,

{
  "responseHeader":{
    "status":0,
    "QTime":15},
  "response":{"numFound":0,"start":0,"docs":[]
  },
  "spellcheck":{
    "suggestions":[
      "abert",{
        "numFound":10,
        "startOffset":0,
        "endOffset":5,
        "origFreq":0,
        "suggestion":[{
            "word":"albert",
            "freq":126},
          {
            "word":"aber t",
            "freq":317},
          {
            "word":"alert",
            "freq":58},
          {
            "word":"a bert",
            "freq":13},
          {
            "word":"abort",
            "freq":57},
          {
            "word":"a be rt",
            "freq":1045},
          {
            "word":"avert",
            "freq":37},
          {
            "word":"ab e rt",
            "freq":335},
          {
            "word":"aberr",
            "freq":21},
          {
            "word":"ab er t",
            "freq":317}]},
      "enstin",{
        "numFound":10,
        "startOffset":6,
        "endOffset":12,
        "origFreq":0,
        "suggestion":[{
            "word":"einstein",
            "freq":92},
          {
            "word":"ens tin",
            "freq":44},
          {
            "word":"enshrin",
            "freq":13},
          {
            "word":"en s tin",
            "freq":673},
          {
            "word":"enjoin",
            "freq":12},
          {
            "word":"e ns tin",
            "freq":335},
          {
            "word":"entwin",
            "freq":8},
          {
            "word":"ens t in",
            "freq":317},
          {
            "word":"epstein",
            "freq":8},
          {
            "word":"en st in",
            "freq":231}]},
      "correctlySpelled",false,
      "collation",[
        "collationQuery","albert einstein",
        "hits",154,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","albert",
          "enstin","einstein"]],
      "collation",[
        "collationQuery","(aber t) einstein",
        "hits",375,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","aber t",
          "enstin","einstein"]],
      "collation",[
        "collationQuery","albert (ens tin)",
        "hits",335,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","albert",
          "enstin","ens tin"]],
      "collation",[
        "collationQuery","albert enshrin",
        "hits",137,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","albert",
          "enstin","enshrin"]],
      "collation",[
        "collationQuery","alert einstein",
        "hits",139,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","alert",
          "enstin","einstein"]]]}}

I am trying to get the following field

"collation",[
        "collationQuery","albert einstein",
        "hits",154,
        "misspellingsAndCorrections",[
          "abert","albert",
          "enstin","einstein"]],

specifically 'albert einstein'. I tried the below code, but getting an error.

$myArray = json_decode($response, true);

foreach ($myArray['collation'] as $doc) {
echo $doc[0];
 }

Answer 1

Lots of problems here.

1. Collation is not a root-level field of the JSON. responseHeader , response , spellcheck are the root-level fields. Everything else is nested under them. Do print_r($myArray) for what json_decode is parsing out.
2. $myArray is an object, not an array. Objects are accessed like $myArray->response , not $myArray['response'] .

3. What you're calling "a field" is not a field. json_encode sees the structure of that data as:

     [6] => collation [7] => Array ( [0] => collationQuery [1] => albert einstein [2] => hits [3] => 154 [4] => misspellingsAndCorrections [5] => Array ( [0] => abert [1] => albert [2] => enstin [3] => einstein ) ) 

If this is your code outputting the JSON, you're going to need to structure it much better. If it's someone else's code, they're mean.