Impossible to convert json to php array - arrays

Question

I got this string :
$mce_settings = "{alignleft: [{selector: "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li", styles: {textAlign:"left"}},{selector: "img,table,dl.wp-caption", classes: "alignleft"}],aligncenter: [{selector: "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li", styles: {textAlign:"center"}},{selector: "img,table,dl.wp-caption", classes: "aligncenter"}],alignright: [{selector: "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li", styles: {textAlign:"right"}},{selector: "img,table,dl.wp-caption", classes: "alignright"}],strikethrough: {inline: "del"}}"
I would like to convert it in php array, so I tried this without success :
json_decode( $mce_settings, true ); //return NULL
Someone has got an idea ?

Answer 1

Your json is malformed (you can see json decode errors using json_last_error(), as explained on the official documentation: json_last_error) due to missing quotes.
Try the following json string:
$mce_settings = '{"alignleft":[{"selector":"p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li","styles":{"textAlign":"left"}},{"selector":"img,table,dl.wp-caption","classes":"alignleft"}],"aligncenter":[{"selector":"p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li","styles":{"textAlign":"center"}},{"selector":"img,table,dl.wp-caption","classes":"aligncenter"}],"alignright":[{"selector":"p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li","styles":{"textAlign":"right"}},{"selector":"img,table,dl.wp-caption","classes":"alignright"}],"strikethrough":{"inline":"del"}}';
var_dump(json_decode( $mce_settings, true ));
This prints:
array(4) {
["alignleft"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(38) "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li"
["styles"]=>
array(1) {
["textAlign"]=>
string(4) "left"
}
}
[1]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(23) "img,table,dl.wp-caption"
["classes"]=>
string(9) "alignleft"
}
}
["aligncenter"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(38) "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li"
["styles"]=>
array(1) {
["textAlign"]=>
string(6) "center"
}
}
[1]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(23) "img,table,dl.wp-caption"
["classes"]=>
string(11) "aligncenter"
}
}
["alignright"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(38) "p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,td,th,div,ul,ol,li"
["styles"]=>
array(1) {
["textAlign"]=>
string(5) "right"
}
}
[1]=>
array(2) {
["selector"]=>
string(23) "img,table,dl.wp-caption"
["classes"]=>
string(10) "alignright"
}
}
["strikethrough"]=>
array(1) {
["inline"]=>
string(3) "del"
}
}