Mysql / PHP / json_encode boolean string conversion

Question

I have a mysql query lets say:

SELECT cca_id AS id, cca_title AS text,IF((SELECT count(*) from crm_categories WHERE cca_id_prev = id),'TRUE','FALSE') AS children FROM crm_categories WHERE...

now I get an array back with true / false as a string

If I use json_encode the result is like {"id":"false"}

But I need true/false without quotes - the problem is if i use true false in the mysql query as a boolean it returns 0/1 - but I don't want that either...

Of course I can run a str_replace to the json string - but i think there are alternatives isn't it?

Answer 1

Well, you are selecting from the database as string. So that's what gets encoded. Use SQL true/false boolean values, which in PHP become 0/1, and cast them to PHP booleans before JSON encoding them:

$data['id'] = (bool)$data['id']; // 0/1 -> PHP false/true

echo json_encode($data); // {'id':true}