How to access a property of an object (stdClass Object) member/element of an array?

Question

Doing print_r() on my array I get the following:

Array ( 
    [0] => 
        stdClass Object 
        ( 
            [id] => 25 
            [time] => 2014-01-16 16:35:17 
            [fname] => 4 
            [text] => 5 
            [url] => 6 
        ) 
)

How can I access a specific value in the array? The following code does not work because of the stdClass Object

echo $array['id'];

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12277268/php-how-to-access-array-element-values-using-array-index — Avinash Babu, Jan 16 '14 at 17:26

score 94 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

To access an array member you use $array['KEY'];

To access an object member you use $obj->KEY;

To access an object member inside an array of objects:
$array[0] // Get the first object in the array
$array[0]->KEY // then access its key

You may also loop over an array of objects like so:

foreach ($arrayOfObjs as $key => $object) {
    echo $object->object_property;
}

Think of an array as a collection of things. It's a bag where you can store your stuff and give them a unique id (key) and access them (or take the stuff out of the bag) using that key. I want to keep things simple here, but this bag can contain other bags too :)

Update (this might help someone understand better):

An array contains 'key' and 'value' pairs. Providing a key for an array member is optional and in this case it is automatically assigned a numeric key which starts with 0 and keeps on incrementing by 1 for each additional member. We can retrieve a 'value' from the array by it's 'key'.

So we can define an array in the following ways (with respect to keys):

First method:

$colorPallete = ['red', 'blue', 'green'];

The above array will be assigned numeric keys automatically. So the key assigned to red will be 0, for blue 1 and so on.

Getting values from the above array:

$colorPallete[0]; // will output 'red'
$colorPallete[1]; // will output 'blue'
$colorPallete[2]; // will output 'green'

Second method:

$colorPallete = ['love' => 'red', 'trust' => 'blue', 'envy' => 'green']; // we expliicitely define the keys ourself.

Getting values from the above array:

$colorPallete['love']; // will output 'red'
$colorPallete['trust']; // will output 'blue'
$colorPallete['envy']; // will output 'green'

hey i didnt understood the use of $value here ..?..and yeah am new to php ..is it a new variable that we create it for finding the key value ? — Avinash Babu, Jan 16 '14 at 17:43
@CodeLover if for example we have an array `$a = ['someKey' => 'someValue'];` then you will get `someValue` returned if you access `$a['someKey']`. When we use the foreach loop we can access the key and value for each member of an array. — Lucky Soni, Jul 19 '14 at 07:27
@LuckySoni hey i knew it .but i want to know echo $value->KEY ..what does it do ..when i tried in code ..it doesnt echoed anything — Avinash Babu, Jul 19 '14 at 15:03
@CodeLover In the answer above the $value is an `Object`. We are accessing the `key` on an `Object` using the `Object->key` notation. Hope this makes sense. — Lucky Soni, Jul 19 '14 at 18:36

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '15 at 09:40

28

Try this, working fine -

$array = json_decode(json_encode($array), true);

answered Jun 10 '15 at 09:40

Rohit Suthar

3,528
1
42
48

1

Thanks! Why does adding `true` converts to array ? – Awena Jun 30 '15 at 03:49
@Awena yes it's for return array. eg. - `json_decode('{"foo":"bar"}', true); returns array("foo" => "bar");` – Rohit Suthar Jun 30 '15 at 08:33

score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 16 '14 at 17:17

13

Try this:

echo $array[0]->id;

answered Jan 16 '14 at 17:17

giordanolima

1,190
1
12
21

1

_Try this_ answers are low value on StackOverflow because they do very little to educate the OP and future readers. Please endeavor to improve this answer regardless of the simplicity of the solution. – mickmackusa May 06 '18 at 01:18
I upvoted this answer but I agree with @mickmackusa, 'Try this' responses are extremely low value on Stack Overflow and I wish S.O. would disallow them frankly. Please give at least some explanation of your proposed solution -even one sentence is enough. – Eight Lives Mar 02 '22 at 18:43
I NEVER uv a code-only answer because it will send the wrong message that all it takes is a snippet to gain unicorn points. The way to making SO better is to only support good content. @Eight – mickmackusa Mar 02 '22 at 19:47

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 16 '14 at 17:20

You have an array. A PHP array is basically a "list of things". Your array has one thing in it. That thing is a standard class. You need to either remove the thing from your array

$object = array_shift($array);
var_dump($object->id);

Or refer to the thing by its index in the array.

var_dump( $array[0]->id );

Or, if you're not sure how many things are in the array, loop over the array

foreach($array as $key=>$value)
{
    var_dump($value->id);
    var_dump($array[$key]->id);
}

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 05 '16 at 18:24

How about something like this.

function objectToArray( $object ){
   if( !is_object( $object ) && !is_array( $object ) ){
    return $object;
 }
if( is_object( $object ) ){
    $object = get_object_vars( $object );
}
    return array_map( 'objectToArray', $object );
}

and call this function with your object

$array = objectToArray( $yourObject );

reference

How to access a property of an object (stdClass Object) member/element of an array?

5 Answers5

Update (this might help someone understand better):

First method:

Getting values from the above array:

Second method:

Getting values from the above array:

Linked