How to decode an array of json object

Question

I have an array of json objects like so:

[{"a":"b"},{"c":"d"},{"e":"f"}]

What is the best way to turn this into a php array?

json_decode will not handle the array part and returns NULL for this string.

Answer 1

json_decode() does so work. The second param turns the result in to an array:

var_dump(json_decode('[{"a":"b"},{"c":"d"},{"e":"f"}]', true));

// gives

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  array(1) {
    ["a"]=>
    string(1) "b"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(1) {
    ["c"]=>
    string(1) "d"
  }
  [2]=>
  array(1) {
    ["e"]=>
    string(1) "f"
  }
}

Answer 2

$array = '[{"a":"b"},{"c":"d"},{"e":"f"}]';
print_r(json_decode($array, true));

Read the manual - parameters for the json_decode method are clearly defined: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php