PHP JSON Exercises : Decode a JSON string

Last update on June 03 2025 12:56:01 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a PHP script to decode a JSON string.

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
// Define a JSON string containing key-value pairs
$json = 
'{
"uglify-js": "1.3.4"
, "jshint": "0.9.1"
, "recess": "1.1.8"
, "connect": "2.1.3"
, "hogan.js": "2.0.0"
}';

// Decode the JSON string into a PHP object
var_dump(json_decode($json));

// Output a newline character for formatting
echo "\n";

// Decode the JSON string into an associative array
var_dump(json_decode($json, true));
?>

Output:

object(stdClass)#1 (5) {                                    
  ["uglify-js"]=>                                           
  string(5) "1.3.4"                                         
  ["jshint"]=>                                              
  string(5) "0.9.1"                                         
  ["recess"]=>                                              
  string(5) "1.1.8"                                         
  ["connect"]=>                                             
  string(5) "2.1.3"                                         
  ["hogan.js"]=>                                            
  string(5) "2.0.0"                                         
}                                                           
                                                            
array(5) {                                                  
  ["uglify-js"]=>                                           
  string(5) "1.3.4"                                         
  ["jshint"]=>                                              
  string(5) "0.9.1"                                         
  ["recess"]=>                                              
  string(5) "1.1.8"                                         
  ["connect"]=>                                             
  string(5) "2.1.3"                                         
  ["hogan.js"]=>                                            
  string(5) "2.0.0"                                         
}

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

$json = ...: Define a JSON string containing key-value pairs.
json_decode($json): Decode the JSON string into a PHP object and return the result.
var_dump(...): Output the result of "json_decode()" for debugging purposes.
json_decode($json, true): Decode the JSON string into an associative array instead of an object.
echo "\n";: Output a newline character for formatting.

Flowchart :

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