PHP array stringify

Question

In a lyrics application I'm coding, I'm using an array to print an artists table. The artists array looks like this:

$artists = [     [ "Avril Lavigne"               ],     [ "3 Doors Down"                ],     [ "Celine Dion"                 ],     [ "Evanescence"                 ],     [ "Shania Twain"                ],     [ "Green Day"                   ],     //... ]; 

Before printing it, I do some modification to the array. I have a folder for each artist that contains the lyrics files. I add the folder names to the $artists array for later use:

$folder_fix = [     [" ",   "_" ],     [".",   ""  ],     ["&",   "n" ], ];  for ($i = 0; $i < count($artists); $i++) {     $folder_name = strtolower($artists[$i][0]);     for ($k = 0; $k < count($folder_fix); $k++) {         $folder_name = str_replace($folder_fix[$k][0], $folder_fix[$k][1], $folder_name);     }     array_push($artists[$i], $folder_name); } 

Later, I add the album and track count for each artist to the array:

$lyrics_base = "lyrics/"; for ($i = 0; $i < count($artists); $i++) {     $albums_path    = $lyrics_base . $artists[$i][1] . "/*";     $tracks_path    = $lyrics_base . $artists[$i][1] . "/*/*";     $albums         = count(glob($albums_path));     $tracks         = count(glob($tracks_path));     array_push($artists[$i], $albums);     array_push($artists[$i], $tracks); } 

The end result of the array looks like this:

$artists = [     [ "Avril Lavigne",  "avril_lavigne",    5,  61  ],     [ "3 Doors Down",   "3_doors_down",     5,  13  ],     [ "Celine Dion",    "celine_dion",      7,  22  ],     [ "Evanescence",    "evanescence",      4,  10  ],     [ "Shania Twain",   "shania_twain",     3,  12  ],     [ "Green Day",      "green_day",        8,  26  ],     //... ]; 

Now, my problem is that this process happens every time I visit the page. The 2nd, 3rd, and the 4th columns are created again and again. I think this is redundant.

I want to save the end result of the array and use it on the page. If this was JavaScript I'd use JSON.stringify(), but in PHP I don't know how to get the end result of the array. print_r() doesn't do the job, because it prints it like this:

Array (     [0] => Array         (             [0] => Avril Lavigne             [1] => avril_lavigne             [2] => 5             [3] => 61         )      [1] => Array         (             [0] => 3 Doors Down             [1] => 3_doors_down             [2] => 5             [3] => 13         ) ... 

I want it like this:

[     [         "Avril Lavigne",         "avril_lavigne",         5,         61     ],     [         "3 Doors Down",         "3_doors_down",         5,         13     ],     //... ] 

Is there a way to print the array the JSON.stringify() way?

Answer 1

Is this what you want?

echo json_encode($artists)

PHP: json_encode