Accessing JSON object with PHP, Random Object Name

Question

I am trying to parse out certain things within the JSON code, but the problem is that the two groups of arrays that have the information in it I need have random names, here is from the var_dump:

array (size=2)
'results' => 
array (size=1)
  0 => string 'Phone.5d5b6fef-a2e0-4b08-cfe3-bc7128b776c3.Durable' (length=50)
'dictionary' => 
array (size=3)
  'Person.51f28c76-2993-42d3-8d65-4ea0a66c5e16.Ephemeral' => 
    array (size=8)
      'id' => 
        array (size=5)
          ...
      'type' => null
      'names' => 
        array (size=1)
          ...
      'age_range' => null
      'locations' => null
      'phones' => 
        array (size=1)
          ...
      'best_name' => string 'John Smith' (length=15)
      'best_location' => null
  'Location.28dc9041-a0ee-4613-a3b0-65839aa461da.Durable' => 
    array (size=30)
      'id' => 
        array (size=5)
          ...
      'type' => string 'ZipPlus4' (length=8)
      'valid_for' => null
      'legal_entities_at' => null
      'city' => string 'City' (length=8)
      'postal_code' => string '12345' (length=5)
      'zip4' => string '4812' (length=4)
      'state_code' => string 'MO' (length=2)
      'country_code' => string 'US' (length=2)
      'address' => string 'Main St, City, MO 12345-4812' (length=33)
      'house' => null

No I am trying to get best_name from under the part that starts with Person and address under Location. But when I do:

$string = file_get_contents($url);
$json=json_decode($string,true);
var_dump($json);
echo $json['dictionary']['Person']['best_name'];

I get Undefined index: Person error, because the actual object name for Person is: Person.51f28c76-2993-42d3-8d65-4ea0a66c5e16.Ephemeral which is different every time I do a search. Is there a way to do this without putting the random generated line in?

Hopefully this makes sense, thanks for the help in advance!

You'll need to loop through $json['dictionary'] and find the key that begins with 'Person' and then proceed to get best_name. — jszobody
– jszobody, Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 19:43

kero · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 19:46:56Z

1

If the Person key always starts with the string "Person", than simply do a foreach and check the key which contains this string.

Like:

foreach ($json['dictionary'] as $key => $value) {
  if (preg_match('/^Person/', $key)) {
    echo $json['dictionary'][$key]['best_name'];
  }
}

Of course this get complicated, if you have multiple keys which start with "Person".

You can do the same with "Location" or any other string you need.

edited Dec 4, 2013 at 19:46

kero

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answered Dec 4, 2013 at 19:45

sasy0174

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3 Comments

NickC217 Over a year ago

Thank you very much, that worked like a charm. I cannot mark it is correct though yet:(

sasy0174 Over a year ago

@kingkero Yes, the ".*$" can be left out, but I like to put it there. :) Thanks for the edit anyway.

kero Over a year ago

@Vaulgatnis You are welcome to rollback. I like my code to be as precise & concise as possible (without losing readability of course) - so I usually remove parts that do nothing (like .*$)

Will · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 19:50:13Z

1

How about something like this ... loop through $json['dictionary']'s index keys to find something that starts with "Person".

$foundIt = false;
foreach (array_keys($json['dictionary']) as $key) {
    if (substr($key,0,6) == 'Person') {
         $foundIt = $key;
         break;
    }
}
if ($foundIt) { echo $json['dictionary'][$foundIt]['best_name']; }

edited Dec 4, 2013 at 19:50

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 19:46

Will

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