How to Convert JSON to an Array in PHP

When you work with APIs or external data sources in PHP, you often receive JSON. PHP can turn it into an object or an associative array with json_decode(). This guide shows both ways with a short example.

The code

Here is a sample JSON string with a resultList of items, each with an id and a displayName:

$data = '{"resultList":[{"id":1,"displayName":"Analytics","subLine":""},{"id":2,"displayName":"Automation","subLine":""}]}';

Decode it as an object and loop through the list to print each display name:

$b = json_decode($data);
foreach ($b->resultList as $item) {
    echo $item->displayName . "<br />";
}

Convert to an array instead

Pass true as the second argument to get an associative array:

$arr = json_decode($data, true);
foreach ($arr['resultList'] as $item) {
    echo $item['displayName'] . "<br />";
}

How it works

• $data holds the raw JSON string.
• json_decode($data) converts the string into a PHP object, or into an array when you pass true.
• foreach walks through every entry in resultList.
• echo prints the displayName of each entry.

Check for errors

If the JSON is invalid, json_decode() returns null. Check json_last_error() so you do not work with empty data:

$arr = json_decode($data, true);
if (json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
    echo "Invalid JSON: " . json_last_error_msg();
}

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