PHP string split

Question

Hi,

I have this $str value :

[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]

I want to split it into the following:

firstname:guest1,lastname:one,age:22
firstname:guest2,lastname:two,age:22

I tried explode (",",$str) , but it explode all using , as delimiter and I don't get what I want

anyone can help me ?

Answer 1

If you split on ,'s then you will get all the other crap that surrounds it. You would then have to strip that off.

Looks a lot like JSON data to me, where is this string coming from?

Answer 2

As Josh K points out, that looks suspiciously like a JSON string. Maybe you should do a json_decode() on it to get the actual data you're looking for, all organized nicely into an array of objects.

EDIT: it seems your string is itself wrapped in double quotes ", so you'll have to trim those away before you'll be able to decode it as valid JSON:

$str_json = trim($str, '"');
$guests = json_decode($str_json);
var_dump($guests);

I get this output with the var_dump(), so it's definitely valid JSON here:

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  object(stdClass)#1 (4) {
    ["firstname"]=>
    string(6) "guest1"
    ["lastname"]=>
    string(3) "one"
    ["age"]=>
    string(2) "22"
    ["gender"]=>
    string(4) "Male"
  }
  [1]=>
  object(stdClass)#2 (4) {
    ["firstname"]=>
    string(6) "guest2"
    ["lastname"]=>
    string(3) "two"
    ["age"]=>
    string(2) "22"
    ["gender"]=>
    string(6) "Female"
  }
}

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is not CSV (comma-separated values). They're two vastly different data formats, so you can't parse one like the other.

To get your two strings, use a loop to get the keys and values of each object, and then build the strings with those values:

foreach ($guests as $guest) {
    $s = array();

    foreach ($guest as $k => $v) {
        if ($k == 'gender') break;
        $s[] = "$k:$v";
    }

    echo implode(',', $s) . "\n";
}

Output:

firstname:guest1,lastname:one,age:22
firstname:guest2,lastname:two,age:22

(Assuming you do want to exclude the genders for whatever reason; if not, delete the if ($k == 'gender') break; line.)

Answer 3

If that is valid json, just run it through json_decode() to get a native php array...

Note that you may need to run it through stripslashes() first, as it appears you may have magic_quotes_gpc set... You can conditionally call it by checking with the function get_magic_quotes_gpc:

if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
    $_POST['foo'] = stripslashes($_POST['foo']);
}
$array = json_decode($_POST['foo']);

Answer 4

You need to use preg_replace function.

    $ptn = "/,\\"gender\\":\\"\w+\\"\}\]?|\\"|\[?\{/";
    $str = "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]";
    $rpltxt = "";
    echo preg_replace($ptn, $rpltxt, $str);

You can the php regular expression tester to test the result.

or use preg_match_all

$ptn = "/(firstname)\\":\\"(\w+)\\",\\"(lastname)\\":\\"(\w+)\\",\\"(age)\\":\\"(\d+)/";
$str = "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]";
preg_match_all($ptn, $str, $matches);
print_r($matches);

Answer 5

i still haven't get a chance to retrieve the JSON : I var_dump the trimmed value as :

    $str_json = trim($userdetails->other_guests, '"');

    $guests = json_decode($str_json);

    var_dump($str_json,$guests);

WHERE $userdetails->other_guests is the $str value I had before...

I get the following output :

string(169) "[{\"firstname\":\"guest1\",\"lastname\":\"one\",\"age\":\"22\",\"gender\":\"Male\"},{\"firstname\":\"guest2\",\"lastname\":\"two\",\"age\":\"23\",\"gender\":\"Female\"}]" NULL

This mean the decoded json are NULL... strange