Multidimensional PHP Array to JSON Array

Question

I have this PHP Array:

Array
(
 [messages] => Array
 (
 [0] => Array
 (
 [sender] => 17
 [receiver] => 4
 [message] => TEST 2
 [timestamp] => 1367200891
 [read] => 0
 )
 [1] => Array
 (
 [sender] => 17
 [receiver] => 4
 [message] => TEST 1
 [timestamp] => 1367197661
 [read] => 0
 )
 )
 [new_messages] => 2
)

It gets retrieved via an Ajax Request, using json_encode() to output it in PHP.

function getMessages(rec){
var nmsg = $.ajax({
 type: "GET",
 async: true,
 url: "/ps/getUserMessages.php",
 data: {'u':rec,'s00':s00,'n01':n01,'t02':t02} 
 });
 nmsg.done(function(data) {
 var json = JSON.parse(data);
 if (typeof json.messages[0].message !== 'undefined') {
 printMessage(json);
 }
 }); 
}

And as printMessage() function, for example, i need to do something like:

loop(){
 $("#elem").append(
 '<div>Sender: '+arrayOfValues.sender+'</div>'
 +'<div>Message: '+arrayOfValues.message+'</div>'
 );
}

for each Array of values.

I tried jQuery $.each() and also for() with some examples i found, but i cannot get to work.

• Dave: Use serialize() and unserialize() to pass an array between php and js and back again easily. Or you can use json_encode() on your code behind php page. then pass it back to your ajax function which can then dump that into a text box which can be posted and json decoded or you can json decode in javascript too and get an array out either way will work fine.
• Sirko: @Dave I think the problem is not within the encoding, but with accessing the received result.
• Dave: Not seeing where the outputting to PHP is in that then as it looks from his code like he's purely attempting to handle it in JS.
• Fr0z3n: @dave i said that i was using json_encode() to pass it to javascript. Read well :) The array it's there just for let you see the structure.
• Dave: if your php is passing it back as JSON then just set your ajax data type to ajax dataType: 'json' and then use the onsuccess function success: function(data){ and you can reference your array as just data["column"] etc so you don't have to mess around parsing json etc you can just directly loop it out. you can remove at least 7 lines of code from your overall code.

Answer 1

If you want to iterate over given structure you should use use following as a printMessage:

function printMessage( json ){
 for ( var i in json.messages ) {
 var currentMessage = json.messages[i];
 $("#elem").append(
 '<div>Sender: '+currentMessage.sender+'</div>'
 +'<div>Message: '+currentMessage.message+'</div>'
 );
 }
}

• Andreas: Don't use for(var i in ...) for arrays. It's for objects and nothing else.
• casraf: So this answer is a suitable solution for this case (reference: w3schools.com/js/js_loop_for.asp)
• Andreas: @henasraf Better use MDN as a reference instead of w3schools. Why? Have a look at w3fools.com - developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/…

Answer 2

Something like this should work:

function printMessage(data) {
 for( var i=0; i<data.messages.length; i++ ) {
 $("#elem").append(
 '<div>Sender: ' + data.messages[i].sender + '</div>'
 +'<div>Message: ' + data.messages[i].message+ '</div>'
 );
 }
}