build json array in php dynamically

Question

I can create simple json objects like this:

$d = array('item' => "$name" ,'rate' => "$rating");

But what if I want to build an array of items and do it dynamically since I am building it from a db query?

Update:

Let me be more specific I know I have to do:

$jsonCode = json_encode($d);

which will create a json object with an item and rate field. But I want multiple json objects in a json array when i encode it.

What I want json wise is something like this:

[{"item":"toy","rating":"baz" },{"item":"bike","rating":"2.3" }, {"item":"juice","rating":"1.3" }]

Answer 1

But I want multiple json objects in a json array when i encode it.

Then create an array of arrays and pass it to json_encode. The documentation about arrays explains how to add elements to an array, in the section Creating/modifying with square bracket syntax.

Associative arrays, like the one you already have, will be encoded as objects, "normal" arrays (arrays with consecutive numerical keys) will be encoded as arrays.

Example:

$d = array();

// This appends a new element to $d, in this case the value is another array
$d[] = array('item' => "$name" ,'rate' => "$rating");

$json = json_encode($d);

Answer 2

This will create a multi-dimensional array from your database query, and then encode it as JSON.

$d = array();
while ($row = $stmt->fetch_assoc()) {
  $d[] = $row;
}
$json = json_encode($d);

Each $row will be an associative array of the data returned from the database. Assigning it to $d[] adds it as an indexed element of that container array.

Answer 3

What you can do is create a php array dynamically as you want then covert it into a json array as below.

$json_array = json_encode($array);

Keep in mind that what you have provided is not a json array