Req #65780 [Opn->Wfx]: failed json_decode forced non-object to array conversion issue

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=65780&edit=1 ID: 65780 Updated by: bukka@php.net Reported by: taligahack at gmail dot com Summary: failed json_decode forced non-object to array conversion issue -Status: Open +Status: Wont fix Type: Feature/Change Request -Package: json +Package: JSON related Operating System: Windows NT 6.1 build 7601 PHP Version: Irrelevant -Assigned To: +Assigned To: bukka Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: This is not what assoc is for. It is used just for json object decoding to set if php stdObject or assoc array is used. It has nothing to do with string decoding. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-10-13 04:16:42] j26733514 at gmail dot com set assoc = true means a json object would convert to php associative array. there's only json empty string, so it won't return any array. if you want to return php associative array, at least have "{" and "}", it will convert to php associative array when you set assoc = true (if set assoc = false, it return php object) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-10-06 14:38:20] taligahack at gmail dot com > if you decode """", it convert to "" naturally. As long as you leave the optional parameter 'assoc' untouched this behavior is expected yes. But, setting assoc= true one would expect an empty array (or an array with one element) as a result even in this case, but it's not guaranteed, which i found interesting how this should be implemented then. Anyway, a quick lookup at the result ( is_array( $result ) ) could help to avoid this situation, but again this is not the expected result logically. Ironically maybe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-10-03 15:45:44] j26733514 at gmail dot com i think it's easy to fix this bug at first. however, there's some embarrassment behavior in decode and encode. if you decode "", there's empty in the string. so var_dump(json_decode("")) will get null. then, i try to test your case json_encode(""); it will get """" , because you want to convert php string to json string. the outer quot will read by php, the inner one will read by json. so, json_encode return string(2) """" if you decode """", it convert to "" naturally. that's embrrass but not a wrong bahavior. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-09-28 10:31:35] taligahack at gmail dot com Description: ------------ --- From manual page: http://www.php.net/function.json-decode --- All php/json versions are affected. The reason i'm writing this bug report/feature request is because the failed conversion of the empty string to array is falls back to string output, but not resulting NULL or an empty array. There's also no way to find out the conversion is failed while the optional parameter should force the method to do the conversion (which was obviously impossible). "Return values" foot note in the json_decode() documentation says: "NULL is returned if the json cannot be decoded or if the encoded data is deeper than the recursion limit." Which is also misleading. While the json actually decoded, the given assoc=true flag should invalidate this result, since the decoded content never made it to an object but a string. Therefore, the expected result would be NULL, not the string. It is also important to note here, that the json_last_error() unfortunately fails to report the conversion issue, therefore json_decode() fails completely silent. The json_last_error() shall report an illegal object/type conversion error, because the json_decode() is forced to convert an illegal type. Test script: --------------- var_dump( json_decode( json_encode( "" ) , true ) ); var_dump( json_last_error( ) ); Expected result: ---------------- null int ? > 0 Actual result: -------------- string '' (length=0) int 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=65780&edit=1