Encoding JSON Through PHP

Question

Ok so I am trying to make a loop in php for json but I dont know what or how to loop it where I can keep the format I want for the JSON output. This is what i have:

$number = array(31,25,160);
$json_holder = array();
$counter = count($names);
$i = 0;
while($i < $counter){
 $json_holder = array('user'=> array('results'=> array('tagnumber' => $number[$i],'status'=>'good'),);
 echo json_encode($json_holder);
 $i++;
}

And my output:

{"user":{"results":{"tagnumber":31,"status":"good"}}} 
{"user":{"results":{"tagnumber":25,"status":"good"}}} 
{"user":{"results":{"tagnumber":160,"status":"good"}}} 

So instead of making new JSON root elements everytime I want to just make a new array in results so it would output like:

{
 "user": {
 "results": [{
 "tagnumber": 31,
 } {
 "tagnumber": 25,
 } {
 "tagnumber": 160,
 }],
 "status": "okay"
 }
} 

I hope I am making sense

• Kevin Ji: How does your while loop not infinite loop without an $i++?
• Felix Kling: The format your would like isn't a very good one. What if different objects have different statuses? Usually, having an object with just one property indicates bad design.
• Dave: Im sorry, I forgot to paste that part in

Answer 1

Code

$number = array(31,25,160);
$payload = array('user' => array('results' => array(), 'status' => 'okay'));
foreach ($number as $num) {
 $payload['user']['results'][]['tagnumber'] = $num;
}
echo json_encode($payload);

No need for a for() loop here.

Output

{
 "user": {
 "results": [
 {
 "tagnumber": 31
 },
 {
 "tagnumber": 25
 },
 {
 "tagnumber": 160
 }
 ],
 "status": "okay"
 }
}

• Kevin Ji: I think it'd be better to attach the status to each individual tagnumber group than to only have one for the entire user.
• David: Well that's not what he/she requested.
• Dave: @mc10: You are completely right but I am just starting to learn JSON and its concepts as this was something I needed to help put the piece to a puzzle together.
• Dave: @David Great. A lot of clarity was provided with that answer. I dont know why I was so bent on using a for loop instead of a foreach. I can see how to structure this better now
• David: It just makes it easier. Learning how to manipulate array()s comes with time, and once you master them, it makes things like this a lot easier to work on.