not getting proper JSON data in php

Question

$events = array();
$employeeData = array();
foreach ($rows as $fetch)
{ 
 $employeeData['start_date'] = $fetch->start_date;
 $employeeData['events']['start_time'] = $fetch->start_time;
 $employeeData['events']['end_time'] = $fetch->end_time;
 $employeeData['events']['name'] = $fetch->FirstName. ' ' .$fetch->LastName;
 array_push($events, $employeeData);
}
$success_status = array(
 'events'=> $events
);
echo json_encode($success_status, true);

Result------------

{ "events": [{ "start_date": "2018-05-27", "events": { "start_time": "11:45:00", "end_time": "13:00:00", "name": "Demo" } }, { "start_date": "2018-06-29", "events": { "start_time": "15:30:00", "end_time": "15:45:00", "name": "Demo" } }, { "start_date": "2018-06-29", "events": { "start_time": "16:30:00", "end_time": "23:45:00", "name": "Demo" } }] }

I am getting the above result but I need to get the following result

{ "events": [{ "start_date": "2018-05-27", "events": [{ "start_time": "11:45:00", "end_time": "13:00:00", "name": "Demo" }] }, { "start_date": "2018-06-29", "events": [{ "start_time": "15:30:00", "end_time": "15:45:00", "name": "Demo" }, { "start_time": "16:30:00", "end_time": "23:45:00", "name": "Demo" }] }] }

Answer 1

I think this should produce the output your after, it's a case of adding an extra layer of arrays to the data you want nested in [{...}]...

$employeeData['events'][] = ['start_time' => $fetch->start_time, 
 'end_time' =>$fetch->end_time,
 'name' => $fetch->FirstName. ' ' .$fetch->LastName ];

So this uses [] to just add the data to an array and I've wrapped the elements into one array rather than adding it as items.

Answer 2

$employeeData['events']['start_time'] basically is creating a single item as an associative array. What you want is an array of event items. So you need to put the event data into an array, then add that array to your events array, like this:

$events = array();
$employeeData = array();
foreach ($rows as $fetch)
{ 
 $event = [];
 $employeeData['start_date'] = $fetch->start_date;
 $event['start_time'] = $fetch->start_time;
 $event['end_time'] = $fetch->end_time;
 $event['name'] = $fetch->FirstName. ' ' .$fetch->LastName;
 $employeeData['events'][] = $event;
 array_push($events, $employeeData);
}
$success_status = array(
 'events'=> $events
);
echo json_encode($success_status, true);

• GrumpyCrouton: Just a guess, you didn't explain what you did in your code at all. I would classify this as a code-only answer which tend to get downvotes.
• matt: Ok. It would be nice if that was pointed out. It seems like there was another answer submitted and a downvote just to push my answer below it... I'll edit to include an explanation though.
• matt: Perhaps not. Just seemed like they both came right at the same time.