Add new JSON object to an array with PHP

Question

Here's my problem. I have a JSON file like this:

[
{
    "projectName": "test",
    "clientName": "test2",
    "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
    "account": {
        "accountAmount": null,
        "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
        "accountType": null
    },
    "total": {
        "totalAmount": null,
        "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
        "totalType": null
    }
}]

And I want PHP to open this file and add another object, so my file will look like this :

[
    {
        "projectName": "test",
        "clientName": "test2",
        "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
        "account": {
            "accountAmount": null,
            "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
            "accountType": null
        },
        "total": {
            "totalAmount": null,
            "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
            "totalType": null
        }
    },
    {
        "projectName": "test",
        "clientName": "test2",
        "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
        "account": {
            "accountAmount": null,
            "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
            "accountType": null
        },
        "total": {
            "totalAmount": null,
            "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
            "totalType": null
        }
    }
]

It should be quite simple, but I can't achieve that. I tried multiple ways to do that :

$file = 'base.json';
if(file_exists ($file)){
    echo 'base.json found';
    $fileContent = file_get_contents($file);
    $oldData = json_decode($fileContent, true);
    echo var_export($oldData);
}
else {
    echo 'base.json not found';
    $oldData = [];
}


echo $data;
$data = json_encode($data);
$oldData = json_encode($oldData);
echo $data; // debug
file_put_contents('base.json', '['.$data.','.$oldData.']');

Yeah, I putted lots of echo to debug the data process... What do I am missing ?

possible duplicate of php jsonencode to a file , format issue — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 17:47
It's essentially the same answer that I gave below, which you accepted. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Apr 23, 2014 at 16:20
Well, I can't understand this topic and apply the solution to my problem :) — enguerranws
– enguerranws, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 12:26

user229044 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 17:40:57Z

5

You're treating this like string manipulation, which is the dead wrong way to go about it. You need to combine the two structures while they're objects, before you re-encode them to JSON.

These three lines...

$data = json_encode($data);
$oldData = json_encode($oldData);
file_put_contents('base.json', '['.$data.','.$oldData.']');

Should be rewritten as...

// Create a new array with the new data, and the first element from the old data
$newData = array($data, $oldData[0]);
$newData = json_encode($newData);
file_put_contents('base.json', $newData);

answered Apr 22, 2014 at 17:40

user229044♦

241k41 gold badges347 silver badges350 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

enguerranws Over a year ago

Thank you for the explanation. There's still one problem : $oldData[0] pick the first object in the array, when I want to pick all objects (my example wasn't clear). How can I pick all objects in $oldData ?

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 17:44:29Z

2

Add the new data to the array with:

$oldData[] = $data;

Then write it back to the file:

file_put_contents('base.json', json_encode($oldData));

answered Apr 22, 2014 at 17:44

Barmar

789k57 gold badges554 silver badges669 bronze badges

2 Comments

enguerranws Over a year ago

Thanks this worked a lot, I didn't know this syntax : $array[] = $newStuff;

Barmar Over a year ago

It's equivalent to array_push($oldData, $data)

Gildonei · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 17:53:02Z

You can transform your json var into array specifing the second param to true on json_decode and after use array_merge to include the new array var and convert to json again.

<?php
$json1 = '[{
    "projectName": "test",
    "clientName": "test2",
    "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
    "account": {
        "accountAmount": null,
        "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
        "accountType": null
    },
    "total": {
        "totalAmount": null,
        "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
        "totalType": null
    }
}]';

$json2 = '[{
    "projectName": "test 2",
    "clientName": "test3",
    "dateValid": "2014-04-22",
    "account": {
        "accountAmount": null,
        "accountDate": "2014-04-27",
        "accountType": null
    },
    "total": {
        "totalAmount": null,
        "totalDate": "2014-04-27",
        "totalType": null
    }
}]';

$arr1 = json_decode($json1, true);
$arr2 = json_decode($json2, true);

$json2 = json_encode(array_merge($arr1, $arr2));

?>

Thiago França · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 17:44:53Z

1

try this

$arr = json_decode(file_get_contents('myFile.json'));

// append a new "object" (array)
$arr[] = array(
    "projectName" => "test",
    "clientName" => "test2",
    "dateValid" => "2014-04-18",
    "account" => array(
        "accountAmount" => null,
        "accountDate" => "2014-04-19",
        "accountType" => null
    ),
    "total" => array(
        "totalAmount" => null,
        "totalDate" => "2014-04-18",
        "totalType" => null
    )
);

$json = json_encode($arr);

file_put_contents('myFile.json', $json);

answered Apr 22, 2014 at 17:44

Thiago França

1,8571 gold badge16 silver badges20 bronze badges

Comments

meda · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 17:47:07Z

try this:

<?php


$json = '[
{
    "projectName": "test",
    "clientName": "test2",
    "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
    "account": {
        "accountAmount": null,
        "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
        "accountType": null
    },
    "total": {
        "totalAmount": null,
        "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
        "totalType": null
    }
}]';

$json_to_add=' {
        "projectName": "test",
        "clientName": "test2",
        "dateValid": "2014-04-18",
        "account": {
            "accountAmount": null,
            "accountDate": "2014-04-19",
            "accountType": null
        },
        "total": {
            "totalAmount": null,
            "totalDate": "2014-04-18",
            "totalType": null
        }
    }';

$data = json_decode($json);
$data_to_add = json_decode($json_to_add);
$data[]=$data_to_add ;
var_dump($data);

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Add new JSON object to an array with PHP

5 Answers 5

1 Comment

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

1 Comment

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related