PHP - recursively iterate over json objects

Question

I need to iterate over objects in PHP and to apply a certain function on each and every single value in this object. The objects are absolutely arbitrary. They can include vars, another objects, arrays, arrays of objects and so on...

Is there a generic method to do so? If yes, how?

Usage example: RESTful API which receives requests in JSON format. json_decode() is executed on request body and creates an arbitrary object. Now, it is good, for example, to execute mysqli_real_escape_string() on every value in this object before further validations.

OBJECT EXAMPLE:

{
  "_id": "551a78c500eed4fa853870fc",
  "index": 0,
  "guid": "f35a0b22-05b3-4f07-a3b5-1a319a663200",
  "isActive": false,
  "balance": "$3,312.76",
  "age": 33,
  "name": "Wolf Oconnor",
  "gender": "male",
  "company": "CHORIZON",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "phone": "+1 (958) 479-2837",
  "address": "696 Moore Street, Coaldale, Kansas, 9597",
  "registered": "2015-01-20T03:39:28 -02:00",
  "latitude": 15.764928,
  "longitude": -125.084813,
  "tags": [
    "id",
    "nulla",
    "tempor",
    "do",
    "nulla",
    "laboris",
    "consequat"
  ],
  "friends": [
    {
      "id": 0,
      "name": "Casey Dominguez"
    },
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Morton Rich"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "Marla Parsons"
    }
  ],
  "greeting": "Hello, Wolf Oconnor! You have 3 unread messages."
}

Answer 1

If you just need to walk over the data and won't need to re-encode it, json_decode()'s second parameter, $assoc will cause it to return an associative array. From there, array_walk_recursive() should work well for what you're after.

$data = json_decode($source_object);
$success = array_walk_recursive($data, "my_validate");

function my_validate($value, $key){
    //Do validation.
}