How to grab this nested string in JSON with PHP?

Question

I am looping through email bodies that are nothing but JSON output. I am trying to grab a single string emailAddress, but I am unsure of the syntax. I am able to get to the Message portion of the JSON, but anything else I try to access, I end up getting Illegal string offset.

So, if my JSON is:

 [Type] => Notification 
 [MessageId] => gibberishhere 
 [TopicArn] => arn:aws:somethingsomethingsomething 
 [Message] => {
   "notificationType":"Bounce",
   "bounce":{
     "feedbackId":"blahblahblahblahblah",
     "bounceType":"Permanent",
     "bounceSubType":"General",
     "bouncedRecipients":[{
       "emailAddress":"[email protected]",
       "action":"failed",
       "status":"5.1.1",
       "diagnosticCode":"smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown"}],
     "timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z",
     "remoteMtaIp":"ip.address.here",
     "reportingMTA":"dsn; somethingsomething"},
     "mail":{
       "timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z",
       "source":"[email protected]",
       "sourceArn":"arn:somethingsomethingdotcom",
       "sourceIp":"ip.address.here",
       "sendingAccountId":"somethingsomething",
       "messageId":"numbersnumbersnumbers1234567890",
       "destination":["[email protected]"]
       }
     } 
     [Timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.677Z 
     [SignatureVersion] => 1 
     [Signature] => blahblahblah 
     [SigningCertURL] => blahblahblah 
     [UnsubscribeURL] => blahblahblah

And I have this to decode it:

$message = json_decode($message, true);
echo $message['Message'];

I get this output:

{
"notificationType":"Bounce",
"bounce":{
  "feedbackId":"blahblahblahblahblah",
  "bounceType":"Permanent",
  "bounceSubType":"General",
  "bouncedRecipients":[{
    "emailAddress":"[email protected]", <---- I NEED THIS FIELD
    "action":"failed",
    "status":"5.1.1",
    "diagnosticCode":"smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown"}],
  "timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z",
  "remoteMtaIp":"ip.address.here",
  "reportingMTA":"dsn; e226-55.smtp-out.us-east-2.amazonses.com"},
  "mail":{
    "timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z",
    "source":"[email protected]",
    "sourceArn":"arn:somethingsomethingdotcom",
    "sourceIp":"ip.address.here",
    "sendingAccountId":"somethingsomething",
    "messageId":"numbersnumbers1234567890",
    "destination":["[email protected]"]
    }
  }

All I need is the emailAddress field. How far in do I need to go to grab it? I've tried

$message['Message']['bounce'], $message['Message']['emailAddress'], and several others, but they all return Illegal string offset.

Looks like it was double encoded. Try decoding the message: $arr = json_decode($message['Message'], true);. Then $arr should be a normal PHP array where you can fetch the value you want. — M. Eriksson
– M. Eriksson, Commented Nov 2, 2020 at 20:32
That slightly helped, but I'm getting a big array of arrays. — DevOpsSauce
– DevOpsSauce, Commented Nov 2, 2020 at 21:34
Yes, that's what the data structure looks like. After decoding it, you should be able to access the value with: $arr['bounce']['bouncedRecipients'][0]['emailAddress']. Check if that works. — M. Eriksson
– M. Eriksson, Commented Nov 2, 2020 at 21:58

berend · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-03 14:48:17Z

2

Working with an associative array is relatively easy, so as suggested in the comment:

$arr = json_decode($message['Message'], true);

Now all you need to do is reference the correct element, follow the path:

echo $arr['bounce']['bouncedRecipients'][0]['emailAddress'];

Which gives:

[email protected]

EDIT: How to reference element emailAddress - explain the [0] index

To get a good view of the array structure of $arr, you can use:

echo '<pre>';
print_r($arr);
echo '</pre>';

Which outputs:

Array
(
    [notificationType] => Bounce
    [bounce] => Array
        (
            [feedbackId] => blahblahblahblahblah
            [bounceType] => Permanent
            [bounceSubType] => General
            [bouncedRecipients] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [emailAddress] => [email protected]
                            [action] => failed
                            [status] => 5.1.1
                            [diagnosticCode] => smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown
                        )

                )

            [timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z
            [remoteMtaIp] => ip.address.here
            [reportingMTA] => dsn; e226-55.smtp-out.us-east-2.amazonses.com
        )

    [mail] => Array
        (
            [timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z
            [source] => [email protected]
            [sourceArn] => arn:somethingsomethingdotcom
            [sourceIp] => ip.address.here
            [sendingAccountId] => somethingsomething
            [messageId] => numbersnumbers1234567890
            [destination] => Array
                (
                    [0] => [email protected]
                )

        )

)

Now all you need to do is follow the 'path' to the element you'd like to reference. I.e. for emailAddress let's take the reverse 'route':

emailAddress lives in an array with key [0] (there you have it, key [0])
key [0] lives in an array with key [bouncedRecipients]
key [bouncedRecipients] lives in an array with key [bounce]
key [bounce] lives in the root of array $arr.

So there you have it, the path to your element:
['bounce']['bouncedRecipients'][0]['emailAddress']

edited Nov 3, 2020 at 14:48

answered Nov 2, 2020 at 21:58

berend

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4 Comments

DevOpsSauce Over a year ago

Thank you so much. I was almost there. I just forgot the [0].

DevOpsSauce Over a year ago

@berend Would it be too much trouble to explain the [0] index, so I fully understand? Thanks.

berend Over a year ago

@IRGeekSauce added a small explanation, hope that helps, take it easy!

DevOpsSauce Over a year ago

Perfect explanation. Thank you!

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