PHP string to array

Question

I have a string that when I var_dump returns the following

string(20) "{\"key1\":\"key1_value",\"key2\":\"key2_value\"}"

How can I convert that into an array that will return the following when I var_dump?

array(2) { ["key1"]=> string(20) "key1_value" ["key2"]=> string(20) "key2_value" } 

Thanks,
Tee

Answer 1

It looks like a simple JSON array that got mangled by PHP's magic_quotes or some other escaping function. Turn off magic_quotes and run json_decode() on the string.

// If you cannot disable `magic_quotes` or you escaped it manually, use this
$array = json_decode(stripslashes($strings), true);

• teepusink: Thanks Sander, that works. I was just doing json_decode without the stripslases which was the issue. Also I actually needs to convert that into an array since what you recommended returned an StdObject. So actual code I used is (array) json_decode(stripslashes($strings))
• teepusink: Actually what David L.-Pratte recommends by setting second parameter to true in the json_decode works too. So json_decode(stripslashes($strings), true)
• Sander Marechal: Ah, yes. Of course. I have edited my answer for future reference.

Answer 2

What you have as data looks like valid JSON. You probably can use json_decode with the second parameter to true (to get an associative array) like this:

$array = json_decode($string, true);

Answer 3

The explode function will get you what you need.

Answer 4

explode(',\\',$string); 

should do the trick.

• gen_Eric: He needs explode. implode turns an array into a string.