PHP array to JS array with jQuery and json_encode

Question

I just want to get my PHP array to a JS array, what am I doing wrong here?

PHP:

// get all the usernames
$login_arr = array();
$sql = "SELECT agent_login FROM agents";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
    array_push($login_arr, $row["agent_login"]);
}
$js_login_arr = json_encode($login_arr);
print $js_login_arr; // ["paulyoung","stevefosset","scottvanderlee"] 

JS:

var login_arr = "<?= $js_login_arr; ?>";
alert(login_arr); // acn't even get the string in??
var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(login_arr);

Answer 1

Remove the quotes from the embedded PHP in your javascript. The notation is an array literal, and doesn't need quoting (assuming the PHP comment after js_login_arr is the what is printed into the javascript).

Answer 2

An easy way to do it is through delimiting. Take your array (don't use assoc arrays unless you need the field names), implode it into a string delimited by some character that shouldn't be used, say % or something, then in JS just explode on that character and voila, you have your array. You don't need to always use formalisms like JSON or XML when a simple solution will do the trick.