Arrays with PHP, Jquery & JSON

Question

I'm looking into saving an array to a text file for later access, but i was wonder what way is better to save this array? Its really just an opinion question! I really just want to know what would be the better way to save this as well as why is there a null in there on the first part?

{
    "questionbanknames": "Question Bank Name",
    "question": [null, {
        "question": "This is question 1?",
        "type": "manual",
        "a": "",
        "b": "",
        "c": "",
        "d": ""
    }, {
        "question": "This is question 2?",
        "type": "multi",
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "no",
        "c": "maybe",
        "d": "all of the above"
    }]
}

OR

 "questionbanknames": "Question Bank Name",
        "question[1][question]": "This is question 1?",
        "question[1][type]": "manual",
        "question[1][a]": "",
        "question[1][b]": "",
        "question[1][c]": "",
        "question[1][d]": "",
        "question[2][question]": "This is question 2?",
        "question[2][type]": "multi",
        "question[2][a]": "yes",
        "question[2][b]": "no",
        "question[2][c]": "maybe",
        "question[2][d]": "all of the above"

raidenace · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-01 05:03:43Z

1

I prefer storing JSON format without serializing. It makes it easier for multiple clients to consume it in the future. Also creating a PHP Object from a JSON string is a breeze.

So I would serialize if it is not JSON, I would save as-is if it is JSON.

answered Apr 1, 2015 at 5:03

raidenace

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2 Comments

Mark Shaw Over a year ago

That makes more sense, so just directly save the bottom array in this case?

raidenace Over a year ago

@MarkShaw The bottom array should not be directly saved. Instead json_encode it and save the resultant JSON into a file. When you need the data back, simply read the file content into a variable and json_decode the variable. This will give you a PHP Object/Array which you can then work with.

kamlesh.bar · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-01 05:06:01Z

0

As you have Json Encoded string I would suggest to store this in Database instead in a file. Encode before saving and get with json decode as array.

Handling JSON from Database much easier than storing in a file and fetching from file. what if you have thousands of questions.

answered Apr 1, 2015 at 5:06

kamlesh.bar

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