Snippet of the week: array_to_json

Ok, I’m not really posting a snippet every week, but bare with me, I’m trying.

Here’s a snipped for all you unlucky people who’s server provider is not enabling json support in the php build. I have a habit of always adding “meta” fields to my tables when I work on large projects in php to enable simple extension without modifying the mysql table, storing data in json format is super for these type of meta fields where you don’t really now what data is going to be in there tomorrow.

It’s originally for “the internet” but slightly modified by yours truly.

function array_to_json( $array ){

    if( !is_array( $array ) ){
        return false;
    }

    $associative = count( array_diff( array_keys($array), array_keys( array_keys( $array )) ));
    if( $associative ){

        $construct = array();
        foreach( $array as $key => $value ){

            // We first copy each key/value pair into a staging array,
            // formatting each key and value properly as we go.

            // Format the key:
            if( is_numeric($key) ){
                $key = "key_$key";
            }
            $key = "'".addslashes($key)."'";

            // Format the value:
            if( is_array( $value )){
                $value = array_to_json( $value );
            } else if( !is_numeric( $value ) || is_string( $value ) ){
                $value = "'".addslashes($value)."'";
            }

            // Add to staging array:
            $construct[] = "$key: $value";
        }

        // Then we collapse the staging array into the JSON form:
        $result = "{ " . implode( ", ", $construct ) . " }";

    } else { // If the array is a vector (not associative):

        $construct = array();
        foreach( $array as $value ){

            // Format the value:
            if( is_array( $value )){
                $value = array_to_json( $value );
            } else if( !is_numeric( $value ) || is_string( $value ) ){
                $value = "'".addslashes($value)."'";
            }

            // Add to staging array:
            $construct[] = $value;
        }

        // Then we collapse the staging array into the JSON form:
        $result = "[ " . implode( ", ", $construct ) . " ]";
    }

    return $result;
}