How to extract data from a json array with php?

Question

I am trying to extract the full_name value from the below json. I have been able to extract from the "query" section using this code.

echo $data->query->params->granularity;

This prints out neighbourhood.

But I am unable to echo the full_name. Im guessing this is because I have to do something different because of the [] but I'm new to this and not at sure what to do.

None of these seem to work.

foreach ($data['places'] as $item) { ough!
echo $item->result->places->contained_within->attributes->full_name;
echo $item->result->places->full_name;
echo $item->result->full_name;
echo $item->full_name;  
}

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

{
  "query": {
    "params": {
      "accuracy": 0,
      "coordinates": {
        "coordinates": [
          -122.42284884,
          37.76893497
        ],
        "type": "Point"
      },
      "granularity": "neighborhood"
    },
    "type": "reverse_geocode"
  },
  "result": {
    "places": [
      {
        "attributes": {

        },
        "bounding_box": {
          "coordinates": [
            [
              [
                -122.42676492,
                37.75983003
              ],
              [
                -122.420736,
                37.75983003
              ],
              [
                -122.420736,
                37.77226299
              ],
              [
                -122.42676492,
                37.77226299
              ]
            ]
          ],
          "type": "Polygon"
        },
        "contained_within": [
          {
            "attributes": {

            },
            "bounding_box": {
              "coordinates": [
                [
                  [
                    -122.51368188,
                    37.70813196
                  ],
                  [
                    -122.35845384,
                    37.70813196
                  ],
                  [
                    -122.35845384,
                    37.83245301
                  ],
                  [
                    -122.51368188,
                    37.83245301
                  ]
                ]
              ],
              "type": "Polygon"
            },
            "country": "United States",
            "country_code": "US",
            "full_name": "San Francisco, CA",
            "id": "5a110d312052166f",
            "name": "San Francisco",
            "place_type": "city"
          }
        ],
        "country": "United States",
        "country_code": "US",
        "full_name": "Mission Dolores, San Francisco",
        "id": "cf7afb4ee6011bca",
        "name": "Mission Dolores",
        "place_type": "neighborhood"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Hi Nick, thanks for having a look. Thats not the full json its only a portion. The JSON came straight from twitter. you can see the all of it at this link.dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/get/geo/reverse_geocode — Eoin O Sullivan
– Eoin O Sullivan, Commented Aug 23, 2014 at 19:03
$item->full_name might work hard to say without seeing full JSON — Cameeob2003
– Cameeob2003, Commented Aug 23, 2014 at 19:07
PHP's print_r() is a little more verbose and will help you determine how to get each variable. pastebin.com/3hyWTNGu — Nicholas Summers
– Nicholas Summers, Commented Aug 23, 2014 at 19:25

sugunan · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-23 19:23:59Z

2

First problem the json is not valid. There are few issue. You can validate at following website: http://jsonlint.com/

And the json have two full name. So following code will help to extract those two full names.

$json = 'Assign the json here';
$json_array = json_decode($json);
echo $json_array->result->places[0]->contained_within[0]->full_name;
echo $json_array->result->places[0]->full_name;

Assign the valid json to the variable $json within single quot (') as json have double quot.

The tested code available here: http://sugunan.net/demo/json1.php

If we take your foreach example it need to be modified like follows. But that is not tested answer.

foreach ($data['places'] as $item) {
echo $item->contained_within[0]->full_name;
echo $item->full_name;
}

Following is the validated json of the above. Which had few unnecessary ",". And it missed few brackets.

{
"query": {
    "params": {
        "accuracy": 0,
        "coordinates": {
            "coordinates": [
                -122.42284884,
                37.76893497
            ],
            "type": "Point"
        },
        "granularity": "neighborhood"
    },
    "type": "reverse_geocode"
},
"result": {
    "places": [
        {
            "attributes": {},
            "bounding_box": {
                "coordinates": [
                    [
                        [
                            -122.42676492,
                            37.75983003
                        ],
                        [
                            -122.420736,
                            37.75983003
                        ],
                        [
                            -122.420736,
                            37.77226299
                        ],
                        [
                            -122.42676492,
                            37.77226299
                        ]
                    ]
                ],
                "type": "Polygon"
            },
            "contained_within": [
                {
                    "attributes": {},
                    "bounding_box": {
                        "coordinates": [
                            [
                                [
                                    -122.51368188,
                                    37.70813196
                                ],
                                [
                                    -122.35845384,
                                    37.70813196
                                ],
                                [
                                    -122.35845384,
                                    37.83245301
                                ],
                                [
                                    -122.51368188,
                                    37.83245301
                                ]
                            ]
                        ],
                        "type": "Polygon"
                    },
                    "country": "United States",
                    "country_code": "US",
                    "full_name": "San Francisco, CA",
                    "id": "5a110d312052166f",
                    "name": "San Francisco",
                    "place_type": "city"
                }
            ],
            "country": "United States",
            "country_code": "US",
            "full_name": "Mission Dolores, San Francisco",
            "id": "cf7afb4ee6011bca",
            "name": "Mission Dolores",
            "place_type": "neighborhood"
        }
    ]
}

}

edited Aug 23, 2014 at 19:23

answered Aug 23, 2014 at 19:04

sugunan

4,4667 gold badges46 silver badges67 bronze badges

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

3 Comments

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Thanks so much for getting back to me.I have this but it only returns a blank page when run. <? include "library/twitteroauth.php"; //twitter app key details $consumer =""; $consumersecret = ""; $accesstoken = ""; $accesstokensecret = ""; $twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer,$consumersecret,$accesstoken,$accesstokensecret); $json = $twitter-> get('api.twitter.com/1.1/geo/…); $json_array = json_decode($json); echo $json_array->result->places[0]->contained_within[0]->full_name; echo $json_array->result->places[0]->full_name; ?>

sugunan Over a year ago

is it working? Try to echo $json; and check wether the json is valid. At following web site pastebin.com

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Hey yeah I got it to work by adding json_encode to the api call. $json = json_encode($twitter->get('apiurl')); Thank you so much for all your help!

Joffrey · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-23 19:19:43Z

0

After I had fixed your JSON (probably copy-paste errors) I have accessed the first (lowest branch) full_name by using:

$data = json_decode($json);
foreach($data->result->places as $item) {
  echo $item->name; // Mission Dolores, San Francisco
}

And the second element named full_name by using:

$data = json_decode($json);
foreach($data->result->places as $item) {
  foreach($item->contained_within as $cont) {
    echo $cont->full_name; // San Francisco, CA
  }
}

The philosophy behind parsing JSON is that some elements have one set of named element for a level, and the other has a number of recurring sets of elements. In this case there is a element called result -> places which can be more than one. And in there there is an element called contained_within which has more elements of its own. The correct way is looping over them using for/foreach but they can also be directly adressed:

$data = json_decode($json);
echo $data->result->places[0]->full_name; // Mission Dolores, San Francisco
echo $data->result->places[0]->contained_within[0]->full_name; // San Francisco, CA

answered Aug 23, 2014 at 19:19

Joffrey

1762 silver badges11 bronze badges

1 Comment

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. I got it working

Rafael Costa · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-23 19:20:27Z

0

You need to decode your json first then do a foreach...you can try this

$json = json_decode("YOUR JSON HERE");
foreach ($json->result->places as $place) {
    echo $place->full_name;
}

answered Aug 23, 2014 at 19:20

Rafael Costa

1

1 Comment

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Hey Rafael, you were on the money, I also had to first encode the api call

i alarmed alien · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-23 19:22:42Z

0

A quick guide to accessing items within a decoded JSON data structure:

Run your json through a validator/formatter so you can see the structure. I use this formatter as you can open and close the nodes to see the structure easily.

When you do json_decode($json_string), PHP's json decoder creates objects and (non-associative) arrays. To access data in objects, use the syntax $object->Attribute. To access data in arrays, give the index of the array item: $array[0] for the first item, $array[1] for the second item, etc.

Examples:

$data = json_decode($json);
echo "accuracy: " . $data->query->params->accuracy . "\n";
// output: "accuracy: 0"
echo "coord 1: " . $data->query->params->coordinates->coordinates[0] . "\n";
// output: "coord 1: -122.42284884"

foreach ($data->query->params->coordinates->coordinates as $c)
    echo "coord: " . $c . "\n"
// output: 
// coord: -122.42284884
// coord: 37.76893497

To get items deeper in the data structure, chain together these accessors. For example, to get full_name, you would use the following:

echo "Full name: " . $data->result->places[0]->full_name . "\n";
// output: Full name: Mission Dolores, San Francisco

edited Aug 23, 2014 at 19:22

answered Aug 23, 2014 at 19:13

i alarmed alien

9,5403 gold badges30 silver badges40 bronze badges

1 Comment

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Thank you so much for all the help, had to add json_encode to the api call but got it working thankfully!

Dr Rob Lang · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-23 19:23:26Z

0

Since you are looping from "places" already, the full_name property would be in $item->full_name already.

Same goes for the contained_within struct, $item->contained_within->full_name should work.

edited Aug 23, 2014 at 19:23

Dr Rob Lang

6,9206 gold badges43 silver badges61 bronze badges

answered Aug 23, 2014 at 19:11

Zeger Hoogeboom

12 bronze badges

1 Comment

Eoin O Sullivan Over a year ago

Thanks for the suggestion, just so you know json_encode and decode seemed to be the ticket.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to extract data from a json array with php?

5 Answers 5

3 Comments

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

3 Comments

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related