Decoding JSON using PHP

Question

Forgive me for the simplicity of this question but I am brand new to working with API's and JSON. But I have a JSON file and I want to print out the "text" value of "duration". How can I do that?

{
   "destination_addresses" : [ "San Francisco, CA, USA" ],
   "origin_addresses" : [ "Seattle, WA, USA" ],
   "rows" : [
      {
         "elements" : [
            {
               "distance" : {
                  "text" : "808 mi",
                  "value" : 1299998
               },
               "duration" : {
                  "text" : "12 hours 27 mins",
                  "value" : 44846
               },
               "status" : "OK"
            }
         ]
      }
   ],
   "status" : "OK"
}

I am trying to do it using:

$url = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/......'
$content = file_get_contents($url);
$json = json_decode($content, true);

echo $json['rows']['elements']['duration']['text'];

Many thanks!

FirstOne · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-31 18:47:49Z

1

You should do it like this:

echo $json['rows'][0]['elements'][0]['duration']['text'];

Output:

12 hours 27 mins

Notice that in the json, you have what marks new arrays [, so you forgot to use [SOME_NUMBER].

This is the structure (from print_r($json);):

Array
(
    [destination_addresses] => Array
        (
            [0] => San Francisco, CA, USA
        )

    [origin_addresses] => Array
        (
            [0] => Seattle, WA, USA
        )

    [rows] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [elements] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [distance] => Array
                                        (
                                            [text] => 808 mi
                                            [value] => 1299998
                                        )

                                    [duration] => Array
                                        (
                                            [text] => 12 hours 27 mins
                                            [value] => 44846
                                        )

                                    [status] => OK
                                )

                        )

                )

        )

    [status] => OK
)

You can also use it as object. It would be like this:

$json = json_decode($content); // without true
echo $json->rows[0]->elements[0]->duration->text;

Output:

12 hours 27 mins

edited Dec 31, 2015 at 18:47

answered Dec 31, 2015 at 18:35

FirstOne

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1 Comment

FirstOne Over a year ago

@Oren, no problems, I'm glad to help. It's easier to miss them when there is only one item in the array...

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