[php] Handling data in a PHP JSON Object

Trends data from Twitter Search API in JSON.

Grabbing the file using:

$jsonurl = "http://search.twitter.com/trends.json";
$json = file_get_contents($jsonurl,0,null,null);
$json_output = json_decode($json);

How do I work with data from this object. As an array? Only really need to extract data from the [name] values.

JSON object contains:

stdClass Object
(
    [trends] => Array
        (
            [0] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Vote
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Vote
                )

            [1] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Halloween
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Halloween
                )

            [2] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Starbucks
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Starbucks
                )

            [3] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => #flylady
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23flylady
                )

            [4] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => #votereport
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23votereport
                )

            [5] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Election Day
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Election+Day%22
                )

            [6] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => #PubCon
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23PubCon
                )

            [7] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => #defrag08
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23defrag08
                )

            [8] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Melbourne Cup
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Melbourne+Cup%22
                )

            [9] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Cheney
                    [url] => http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Cheney
                )

        )

    [as_of] => Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:49:36 +0000
)

Just use it like it was an object you defined. i.e.

$trends = $json_output->trends;

Just use it like it was an object you defined. i.e.

$trends = $json_output->trends;

If you use json_decode($string, true), you will get no objects, but everything as an associative or number indexed array. Way easier to handle, as the stdObject provided by PHP is nothing but a dumb container with public properties, which cannot be extended with your own functionality.

$array = json_decode($string, true);

echo $array['trends'][0]['name'];

If you use json_decode($string, true), you will get no objects, but everything as an associative or number indexed array. Way easier to handle, as the stdObject provided by PHP is nothing but a dumb container with public properties, which cannot be extended with your own functionality.

$array = json_decode($string, true);

echo $array['trends'][0]['name'];

Just use it like it was an object you defined. i.e.

$trends = $json_output->trends;