INPUT JSON
PHP ARRAY OUTPUT
Paste JSON and get a PHP array in short syntax, with the nesting kept. Every colon becomes => and every string gets single quotes with its own quotes escaped, so a real API response can go straight into a config file or a PHPUnit fixture.
[
{
"id": 1,
"name": "John Doe",
"email": "john@example.com",
"roles": ["admin", "editor"],
"active": true
},
{
"id": 2,
"name": "Jane Smith",
"email": "jane@example.com",
"roles": ["user"],
"active": false
}
]$users = [
[
'id' => 1,
'name' => 'John Doe',
'email' => 'john@example.com',
'roles' => [
'admin',
'editor'
],
'active' => true
],
[
'id' => 2,
'name' => 'Jane Smith',
'email' => 'jane@example.com',
'roles' => [
'user'
],
'active' => false
]
];Laravel config files return PHP arrays, and Symfony PHP config passes arrays to each bundle. API documentation shows its examples as JSON, so paste the example here and copy the array across.
Convert a real response once and commit it as a fixture. The test then reads a static array instead of calling the API, so it runs the same way offline and in CI.
<?php
$raw = '{"id":1,"name":"O\'Neil","tags":["a","b"],"active":true,"note":null}';
$data = json_decode($raw, true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
// var_export() prints valid PHP source for any array
$code = "<?php\n\nreturn " . var_export($data, true) . ";\n";
file_put_contents('config.php', $code);
echo $code;var_export() emits the old array() syntax and writes NULL in capitals. The result looks dated, but it is valid on every PHP version.
const raw = '{"id":1,"name":"O\'Neil","tags":["a","b"],"active":true,"note":null}';
function toPhp(value, depth = 0) {
const pad = " ".repeat(depth + 1);
const end = " ".repeat(depth);
if (value === null) return "null";
if (typeof value === "boolean") return value ? "true" : "false";
if (typeof value === "number") return String(value);
if (typeof value === "string") {
return "'" + value.replace(/\\/g, "\\\\").replace(/'/g, "\\'") + "'";
}
if (Array.isArray(value)) {
return "[\n" + value.map((v) => pad + toPhp(v, depth + 1)).join(",\n") + "\n" + end + "]";
}
return "[\n" + Object.entries(value)
.map(([k, v]) => pad + toPhp(k) + " => " + toPhp(v, depth + 1))
.join(",\n") + "\n" + end + "]";
}
console.log("<?php\n\nreturn " + toPhp(JSON.parse(raw)) + ";");Use this in a build script that turns fixtures.json into a PHP config file. It needs no packages.
import json
raw = '{"id":1,"name":"O\'Neil","tags":["a","b"],"active":true,"note":null}'
def to_php(value, depth=0):
pad, end = " " * (depth + 1), " " * depth
if value is None:
return "null"
if isinstance(value, bool):
return "true" if value else "false"
if isinstance(value, (int, float)):
return str(value)
if isinstance(value, str):
return "'" + value.replace("\\", "\\\\").replace("'", "\\'") + "'"
if isinstance(value, list):
items = [pad + to_php(v, depth + 1) for v in value]
else:
items = [pad + to_php(k) + " => " + to_php(v, depth + 1) for k, v in value.items()]
return "[\n" + ",\n".join(items) + "\n" + end + "]"
print("<?php\n\nreturn " + to_php(json.loads(raw)) + ";")The output is always an associative array, the same thing json_decode($json, true) gives you. Leave out that second argument and you get stdClass objects instead, accessed with ->. Objects are fine for reading, but arrays merge, serialize and go into array_* functions directly, so the tool produces arrays.
Do not rely on key order. PHP arrays keep insertion order, so keys come out in the order they appeared in the JSON. However, JSON itself makes no promise about key order, and the next parser in the chain may reshuffle them.
This tool follows the specifications below. Read them when you need the exact normative wording, for example to settle an edge case between two implementations.
Yes. The converter walks the JSON recursively, so nested objects and arrays become nested PHP arrays at the same depth, however deep they go.
The output uses the short array syntax [], which works on PHP 5.4 and every later version, including PHP 8. If you need the legacy array() form, a find-and-replace on the brackets works as long as no string value contains a bracket.
Use json_decode() for data that arrives at runtime. This tool is for the cases where you want a static array in source code, such as a config file, a seeder, a translation file or a test fixture, with no decode step when the code runs.
true, false and null map to PHP's true, false and null. Numbers stay numbers. Strings go in single quotes with any single quote or backslash inside escaped, so O'Neil comes out as 'O\'Neil'.
No. The JSON is parsed with JSON.parse() in this tab and the array is built in JavaScript, so nothing is sent to a server. That makes it safe for API responses that contain private data.
PHP array to JSON converts in the other direction. CSV to PHP array starts from a spreadsheet instead, and the JSON formatter shows where malformed input breaks.