Bug->Req #76186 [Opn]: ArrayObject should be able to be Json encoded as an Array

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=76186&edit=1 ID: 76186 Updated by: requinix@php.net Reported by: lionel at lionelmartin dot eu -Summary: ArrayIterator is always Json encoded as an Object +Summary: ArrayObject should be able to be Json encoded as an Array Status: Open -Type: Bug +Type: Feature/Change Request Package: SPL related Operating System: Linux -PHP Version: 5.6.35 +PHP Version: 7.1 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: In both cases you can use iterator_to_array(). https://3v4l.org/09dT1 ArrayObject is an object so this behavior makes sense, but having it implement JsonSerializable sounds reasonable. @fractalesque: I think the idea is that an array and an ArrayObject both containing the same data should be serialized the same way. Yes, the class would have special handling just for this case. I assume internally it could just be a matter of adding a JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize() that returns the private $storage array. However ArrayIterator isn't as easy because it's an iterator, so keys (and values) are not known ahead of time. That would mean processing the iterator twice: once to identify whether it can constitute a JSON array, then again to actually serialize the data. Of course the first pass would have to store the values in a temporary array in case the iterator being serialized can't run again, and that temporary array would be what gets serialized in the second pass. Which makes it all the same as using iterator_to_array(). In my opinion, iterators should always be serialized as objects, for simplicity, and if the developer knows the data is suitable then they can/should use iterator_to_array() explicitly. But I think it's a topic debatable enough to warrant discussing on the internals mailing list, if you'd like to start that. http://php.net/mailing-lists.php Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-04-05 14:14:01] fractalesque at gmail dot com I fail to understand the "bug" part of your issue. It really is expected that an ArrayObject representation of an array be encoded as an object in json. The contrary would be quite unsettling, actually. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-04-05 14:01:52] lionel at lionelmartin dot eu Description: ------------ When using json_encode on an ArrayIterator (or ArrayObject), the result is always an object contrary to its json_encoded array representation. Test script: --------------- $array = ['my', 'test', 'array']; $arrayObject = new \ArrayObject($array); $arrayIterator = $arrayObject->getIterator(); echo json_encode($array); echo json_encode($arrayObject); echo json_encode($arrayIterator); Expected result: ---------------- ["my","test","array"] ["my","test","array"] ["my","test","array"] Actual result: -------------- ["my","test","array"] {"0":"my","1":"test","2":"array"} {"0":"my","1":"test","2":"array"} ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=76186&edit=1