PHP return variables to AJAX (maybe an array?)

Question

My wish is to send some information in a datastring through AJAX to a PHP page and then return variables for me to separate and ask jQuery to fill out in different elements. So that it would be able for me to just say:

$('.elemA').html($variableA);
$('.elemB').html($variableB); etc.

But I am not sure if it is possible or how to do it.. Maybe it can return an array for me to separate somehow? I don't know.

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If anyone else finds this question - this script helped me out and actually showed me the meaning of the JSON encoding: http://www.jonsuh.com/demo/jquery-ajax-call-to-php-script-with-json-return

• Marc B: php arrays mean nothing to JS, but you can take a PHP array and json_encode() it, which jquery can take and convert to a javascript array.
• Kai Qing: look into jquery ajax. it's very easy to use: api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax

Answer 1

You should use json_encode($array). Which uses JSON to encode your array and return a data string that can be read easily by Javascript.

To convert it to a Javascript array you can use parseJSON() or as suggested by @BishopZ use JSON.parse(ajaxResponse), which is built in most modern browsers.

• Corfitz.: How do I create a javascript array afterwords? And How do I separate the variables, and use them?
• sh03: @PhilipJensBramsted, parseJSON() is there for you.
• BishopZ: In most browsers the Javascript syntax to read the JSON from the ajax response is JSON.parse(ajaxResponse). The JSON object is built into all modern browsers.