Ambiguity in PHP array

Question

I want to display the Itinerary details from developer.ean.com API. By passing the customer's Itinerary ID and Email ID I got the details of reservation. The result is comming in json format so I decoded it and creating array by using :

$array=json_decode($result);

The problem is whatever the result comming from API contain problem like :

For some records it providing array like this:

[Itinerary] => stdClass Object
        (
            [HotelConfirmation] => Array
                (
                    [0] => stdClass Object
                        (
                            [supplierId] => 13
                            [chainCode] => EP
                            [arrivalDate] => 07/24/2012
                            [departureDate] => 07/26/2012
            )
            [Hotel] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => stdClass Object
                                (
                                   [hotelId] => 394808
                                   [statusCode] => A
                                   [name] => Barkston Youth Hostel
                )
            )
        )
    )

In this case the HotelConfirmation and Hotel is Array which contain [0] as object

and for some records it providing array like this:

[Itinerary] => stdClass Object
        (
            [HotelConfirmation] => stdClass Object
                (
                            [supplierId] => 13
                            [chainCode] => EP
                            [arrivalDate] => 07/24/2012
                            [departureDate] => 07/26/2012
            )
       [Hotel] => stdClass Object              
                (
                            [hotelId] => 394808
                            [statusCode] => A
                            [name] => Barkston Youth Hostel
            )
       )

and In this case the HotelConfirmation and Hotel is itself an object

I providing only few data here actually its big array and I want to provide list of it. But the array containing ambiguity like this. How can I handle this issue. Is there any solution.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Pass true as the second argument to json_decode. This will create an array instead of stdClass

$array=json_decode($result, true);

Answer 2

you can normalize the input like so:

// get objects as arrays
$array = json_decode($result, true);
// remove the sub-level [0], when necessary
foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    if (is_array($value[0])) {
        $array[$key] = $value[0];
    }
}

Then the result always looks the same:

[Itinerary] => Array
        (
            [HotelConfirmation] => Array
                (
                            [supplierId] => 13
                            [chainCode] => EP
                            [arrivalDate] => 07/24/2012
                            [departureDate] => 07/26/2012
            )
            [Hotel] => Array              
                (
                            [hotelId] => 394808
                            [statusCode] => A
                            [name] => Barkston Youth Hostel
            )
       )

Answer 3

First do this:

$array = json_decode($result, true);

Which will convert objects into associative arrays

And do adjustment like this:

if (isset($array['HotelItineraryResponse']['Itinerary']['HotelConfirmation'][0])) {
    $array['HotelItineraryResponse']['Itinerary']['HotelConfirmation'] = $array['HotelItineraryResponse']['Itinerary']['HotelConfirmation'][0];
}

It will definitly work.

Answer 4

You can use is_array() to check for it:

if (is_array($hotel)) {
    $hotel = $hotel[0];
}

Answer 5

just change to this:

$array=json_decode($result,TRUE);

and handle arrays always?

Answer 6

Looks like you may have to account for both possibilities in your model... Checking to see if the hotel node contains and array or an obj and operating accordingly.

Answer 7

you can type case the object inside of an array.

$array = json_decode($result);
$array = (array)$array

or alternatively you can pass true as the second argument in your json_decode();

according to php documentation

When TRUE, returned objects will be converted into associative arrays.

$array = json_decode($result, true);

Answer 8

Check for object or array:

if( is_object($Itinerary -> HotelConfirmation)) {
// do one thing or nothing
} elseif( is_array($Itinerary -> HotelConfirmation)) {
$Itinerary -> HotelConfirmation = array_shift( $Itinerary -> HotelConfirmation );
}