Convert a PHP object to an associative array

Question

I'm integrating an API to my website which works with data stored in objects while my code is written using arrays.

I'd like a quick-and-dirty function to convert an object to an array.

Answer 1

Just typecast it

$array = (array) $yourObject;

From Arrays:

If an object is converted to an array, the result is an array whose elements are the object's properties. The keys are the member variable names, with a few notable exceptions: integer properties are unaccessible; private variables have the class name prepended to the variable name; protected variables have a '*' prepended to the variable name. These prepended values have null bytes on either side.

Example: Simple Object

$object = new StdClass;
$object->foo = 1;
$object->bar = 2;

var_dump( (array) $object );

Output:

array(2) {
  'foo' => int(1)
  'bar' => int(2)
}

Example: Complex Object

class Foo
{
    private $foo;
    protected $bar;
    public $baz;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->foo = 1;
        $this->bar = 2;
        $this->baz = new StdClass;
    }
}

var_dump( (array) new Foo );

Output (with \0s edited in for clarity):

array(3) {
  '\0Foo\0foo' => int(1)
  '\0*\0bar' => int(2)
  'baz' => class stdClass#2 (0) {}
}

Output with var_export instead of var_dump:

array (
  '' . "\0" . 'Foo' . "\0" . 'foo' => 1,
  '' . "\0" . '*' . "\0" . 'bar' => 2,
  'baz' =>
  stdClass::__set_state(array(
  )),
)

To know more about php built-in class stdclass. You can read this documentation

Typecasting this way will not do deep casting of the object graph and you need to apply the null bytes (as explained in the manual quote) to access any non-public attributes. So this works best when casting StdClass objects or objects with only public properties. For quick and dirty (what you asked for) it's fine.

Also see this in-depth blog post:

• Fast PHP Object to Array conversion

Answer 2

You can quickly convert deeply nested objects to associative arrays by relying on the behavior of the JSON encode/decode functions:

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

Answer 3

From the first Google hit for "PHP object to assoc array" we have this:

/**
 * @param array|object $data
 * @return array
 */
function object_to_array($data)
{
    $result = [];
    foreach ($data as $key => $value)
    {
        $result[$key] = (is_array($value) || is_object($value)) ? object_to_array($value) : $value;
    }
    return $result;
}

The original source was from codesnippets.joyent.com and has been changed according to @SpYk3HH's comment; see also Object Iteration.

---

To compare it to the solution of json_decode & json_encode, this one seems faster. Here is a random benchmark (using the simple time measuring):

$obj = (object) [
    'name'    =>'Mike',
    'surname' =>'Jovanson',
    'age'     =>'45',
    'time'    =>1234567890,
    'country' =>'Germany',
];

##### 100 000 cycles ######
* json_decode(json_encode($var))   : 4.15 sec
* object_to_array($var)            : 0.93 sec

Answer 4

If your object properties are public you can do:

$array =  (array) $object;

If they are private or protected, they will have weird key names on the array. So, in this case you will need the following function:

function dismount($object) {
    $reflectionClass = new ReflectionClass(get_class($object));
    $array = array();
    foreach ($reflectionClass->getProperties() as $property) {
        $property->setAccessible(true);
        $array[$property->getName()] = $property->getValue($object);
        $property->setAccessible(false);
    }
    return $array;
}

Answer 5

What about get_object_vars($obj)? It seems useful if you only want to access the public properties of an object.

See get_object_vars.

Answer 6

class Test{
    const A = 1;
    public $b = 'two';
    private $c = test::A;

    public function __toArray(){
        return call_user_func('get_object_vars', $this);
    }
}

$my_test = new Test();
var_dump((array)$my_test);
var_dump($my_test->__toArray());

Output

array(2) {
    ["b"]=>
    string(3) "two"
    ["Testc"]=>
    int(1)
}
array(1) {
    ["b"]=>
    string(3) "two"
}

Answer 7

Here is some code:

function object_to_array($data) {
    if ((! is_array($data)) and (! is_object($data)))
        return 'xxx'; // $data;

    $result = array();

    $data = (array) $data;
    foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
        if (is_object($value))
            $value = (array) $value;
        if (is_array($value))
            $result[$key] = object_to_array($value);
        else
            $result[$key] = $value;
    }
    return $result;
}

Answer 8

Type cast your object to an array.

$arr =  (array) $Obj;

It will solve your problem.

Answer 9

All other answers posted here are only working with public attributes. Here is one solution that works with JavaBeans-like objects using reflection and getters:

function entity2array($entity, $recursionDepth = 2) {
    $result = array();
    $class = new ReflectionClass(get_class($entity));
    foreach ($class->getMethods(ReflectionMethod::IS_PUBLIC) as $method) {
        $methodName = $method->name;
        if (strpos($methodName, "get") === 0 && strlen($methodName) > 3) {
            $propertyName = lcfirst(substr($methodName, 3));
            $value = $method->invoke($entity);

            if (is_object($value)) {
                if ($recursionDepth > 0) {
                    $result[$propertyName] = $this->entity2array($value, $recursionDepth - 1);
                }
                else {
                    $result[$propertyName] = "***";  // Stop recursion
                }
            }
            else {
                $result[$propertyName] = $value;
            }
        }
    }
    return $result;
}

Answer 10

To convert an object into array just cast it explicitly:

$name_of_array = (array) $name_of_object;

Answer 11

Use:

function readObject($object) {
    $name = get_class ($object);
    $name = str_replace('\\', "\\\\", $name); // Outcomment this line, if you don't use
                                              // class namespaces approach in your project
    $raw = (array)$object;

    $attributes = array();
    foreach ($raw as $attr => $val) {
        $attributes[preg_replace('('.$name.'|\*|)', '', $attr)] = $val;
    }
    return $attributes;
}

It returns an array without special characters and class names.

Answer 12

You can also create a function in PHP to convert an object array:

function object_to_array($object) {
    return (array) $object;
}

Answer 13

You can easily use this function to get the result:

function objetToArray($adminBar){
    $reflector = new ReflectionObject($adminBar);
    $nodes = $reflector->getProperties();
    $out = [];
    foreach ($nodes as $node) {
        $nod = $reflector->getProperty($node->getName());
        $nod->setAccessible(true);
        $out[$node->getName()] = $nod->getValue($adminBar);
    }
    return $out;
}

Use PHP 5 or later.

Answer 14

Here is my recursive PHP function to convert PHP objects to an associative array:

// ---------------------------------------------------------
// ----- object_to_array_recursive --- function (PHP) ------
// ---------------------------------------------------------
// --- arg1: -- $object  =  PHP Object         - required --
// --- arg2: -- $assoc   =  TRUE or FALSE      - optional --
// --- arg3: -- $empty   =  '' (Empty String)  - optional --
// ---------------------------------------------------------
// ----- Return: Array from Object --- (associative) -------
// ---------------------------------------------------------

function object_to_array_recursive($object, $assoc=TRUE, $empty='')
{
    $res_arr = array();

    if (!empty($object)) {

        $arrObj = is_object($object) ? get_object_vars($object) : $object;

        $i=0;
        foreach ($arrObj as $key => $val) {
            $akey = ($assoc !== FALSE) ? $key : $i;
            if (is_array($val) || is_object($val)) {
                $res_arr[$akey] = (empty($val)) ? $empty : object_to_array_recursive($val);
            }
            else {
                $res_arr[$akey] = (empty($val)) ? $empty : (string)$val;
            }
            $i++;
        }
    }
    return $res_arr;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------
// ---------------------------------------------------------

Usage example:

// ---- Return associative array from object, ... use:
$new_arr1 = object_to_array_recursive($my_object);
// -- or --
// $new_arr1 = object_to_array_recursive($my_object, TRUE);
// -- or --
// $new_arr1 = object_to_array_recursive($my_object, 1);


// ---- Return numeric array from object, ... use:
$new_arr2 = object_to_array_recursive($my_object, FALSE);

Answer 15

Custom function to convert stdClass to an array:

function objectToArray($d) {
    if (is_object($d)) {
        // Gets the properties of the given object
        // with get_object_vars function
        $d = get_object_vars($d);
    }

    if (is_array($d)) {
        /*
        * Return array converted to object
        * Using __FUNCTION__ (Magic constant)
        * for recursive call
        */
        return array_map(__FUNCTION__, $d);
    } else {
        // Return array
        return $d;
    }
}

Another custom function to convert Array to stdClass:

function arrayToObject($d) {
    if (is_array($d)) {
        /*
        * Return array converted to object
        * Using __FUNCTION__ (Magic constant)
        * for recursive call
        */
        return (object) array_map(__FUNCTION__, $d);
    } else {
        // Return object
        return $d;
    }
}

Usage Example:

// Create new stdClass Object
$init = new stdClass;

// Add some test data
$init->foo = "Test data";
$init->bar = new stdClass;
$init->bar->baaz = "Testing";
$init->bar->fooz = new stdClass;
$init->bar->fooz->baz = "Testing again";
$init->foox = "Just test";

// Convert array to object and then object back to array
$array = objectToArray($init);
$object = arrayToObject($array);

// Print objects and array
print_r($init);
echo "\n";
print_r($array);
echo "\n";
print_r($object);

Answer 16

First of all, if you need an array from an object you probably should constitute the data as an array first. Think about it.

Don't use a foreach statement or JSON transformations. If you're planning this, again you're working with a data structure, not with an object.

If you really need it use an object-oriented approach to have a clean and maintainable code. For example:

Object as array

class PersonArray implements \ArrayAccess, \IteratorAggregate
{
    public function __construct(Person $person) {
        $this->person = $person;
    }
    // ...
 }

If you need all properties, use a transfer object:

class PersonTransferObject
{
    private $person;

    public function __construct(Person $person) {
        $this->person = $person;
    }

    public function toArray() {
        return [
            // 'name' => $this->person->getName();
        ];
    }

 }

Answer 17

Short solution of @SpYk3HH

function objectToArray($o)
{
    $a = array();
    foreach ($o as $k => $v)
        $a[$k] = (is_array($v) || is_object($v)) ? objectToArray($v): $v;

    return $a;
}

Answer 18

You might want to do this when you obtain data as objects from databases:

// Suppose 'result' is the end product from some query $query

$result = $mysqli->query($query);
$result = db_result_to_array($result);

function db_result_to_array($result)
{
    $res_array = array();

    for ($count=0; $row = $result->fetch_assoc(); $count++)
        $res_array[$count] = $row;

    return $res_array;
}

Answer 19

This answer is only the union of the different answers of this post, but it's the solution to convert a PHP object with public or private properties with simple values or arrays to an associative array...

function object_to_array($obj)
{
    if (is_object($obj))
        $obj = (array)$this->dismount($obj);
    if (is_array($obj)) {
        $new = array();
        foreach ($obj as $key => $val) {
            $new[$key] = $this->object_to_array($val);
        }
    }
    else
        $new = $obj;
    return $new;
}

function dismount($object)
{
    $reflectionClass = new \ReflectionClass(get_class($object));
    $array = array();
    foreach ($reflectionClass->getProperties() as $property) {
        $property->setAccessible(true);
        $array[$property->getName()] = $property->getValue($object);
        $property->setAccessible(false);
    }
    return $array;
}

Answer 20

Also you can use The Symfony Serializer Component

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\JsonEncoder;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\ObjectNormalizer;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Serializer;

$serializer = new Serializer([new ObjectNormalizer()], [new JsonEncoder()]);
$array = json_decode($serializer->serialize($object, 'json'), true);

Answer 21

I use this (needed recursive solution with proper keys):

    /**
     * This method returns the array corresponding to an object, including non public members.
     *
     * If the deep flag is true, is will operate recursively, otherwise (if false) just at the first level.
     *
     * @param object $obj
     * @param bool $deep = true
     * @return array
     * @throws \Exception
     */
    public static function objectToArray(object $obj, bool $deep = true)
    {
        $reflectionClass = new \ReflectionClass(get_class($obj));
        $array = [];
        foreach ($reflectionClass->getProperties() as $property) {
            $property->setAccessible(true);
            $val = $property->getValue($obj);
            if (true === $deep && is_object($val)) {
                $val = self::objectToArray($val);
            }
            $array[$property->getName()] = $val;
            $property->setAccessible(false);
        }
        return $array;
    }

Example of usage, the following code:

class AA{
    public $bb = null;
    protected $one = 11;

}

class BB{
    protected $two = 22;
}


$a = new AA();
$b = new BB();
$a->bb = $b;

var_dump($a)

Will print this:

array(2) {
  ["bb"] => array(1) {
    ["two"] => int(22)
  }
  ["one"] => int(11)
}

Answer 22

Converting and removing annoying stars:

$array = (array) $object;
foreach($array as $key => $val)
{
    $new_array[str_replace('*_', '', $key)] = $val;
}

Probably, it will be cheaper than using reflections.

Answer 23

Some impovements to the "well-knwon" code

/*** mixed Obj2Array(mixed Obj)***************************************/ 
static public function Obj2Array($_Obj) {
    if (is_object($_Obj))
        $_Obj = get_object_vars($_Obj);
    return(is_array($_Obj) ? array_map(__METHOD__, $_Obj) : $_Obj);   
} // BW_Conv::Obj2Array

Notice that if the function is member of a class (like above) you must change __FUNCTION__ to __METHOD__

Answer 24

For your case it was right/beautiful if you would use the "decorator" or "date model transformation" patterns. For example:

Your model

class Car {
    /** @var int */
    private $color;

    /** @var string */
    private $model;

    /** @var string */
    private $type;

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    public function getColor(): int
    {
        return $this->color;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $color
     * @return Car
     */
    public function setColor(int $color): Car
    {
        $this->color = $color;
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getModel(): string
    {
        return $this->model;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $model
     * @return Car
     */
    public function setModel(string $model): Car
    {
        $this->model = $model;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getType(): string
    {
        return $this->type;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $type
     * @return Car
     */
    public function setType(string $type): Car
    {
        $this->type = $type;

        return $this;
    }
}

Decorator

class CarArrayDecorator
{
    /** @var Car */
    private $car;

    /**
     * CarArrayDecorator constructor.
     * @param Car $car
     */
    public function __construct(Car $car)
    {
        $this->car = $car;
    }

    /**
     * @return array
     */
    public function getArray(): array
    {
        return [
            'color' => $this->car->getColor(),
            'type' => $this->car->getType(),
            'model' => $this->car->getModel(),
        ];
    }
}

Usage

$car = new Car();
$car->setType('type#');
$car->setModel('model#1');
$car->setColor(255);

$carDecorator = new CarArrayDecorator($car);
$carResponseData = $carDecorator->getArray();

So it will be more beautiful and more correct code.

Answer 25

Since a lot of people find this question because of having trouble with dynamically access attributes of an object, I will just point out that you can do this in PHP: $valueRow->{"valueName"}

In context (removed HTML output for readability):

$valueRows = json_decode("{...}"); // Rows of unordered values decoded from a JSON object

foreach ($valueRows as $valueRow) {

    foreach ($references as $reference) {

        if (isset($valueRow->{$reference->valueName})) {
            $tableHtml .= $valueRow->{$reference->valueName};
        }
        else {
            $tableHtml .= " ";
        }
    }
}

Answer 26

There's my proposal, if you have objects in objects with even private members:

public function dismount($object) {
    $reflectionClass = new \ReflectionClass(get_class($object));
    $array = array();
    foreach ($reflectionClass->getProperties() as $property) {
        $property->setAccessible(true);
        if (is_object($property->getValue($object))) {
            $array[$property->getName()] = $this->dismount($property->getValue($object));
        } else {
            $array[$property->getName()] = $property->getValue($object);
        }
        $property->setAccessible(false);
    }
    return $array;
}

Answer 27

I think it is a nice idea to use traits to store object-to-array converting logic. A simple example:

trait ArrayAwareTrait
{
    /**
     * Return list of Entity's parameters
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray()
    {
        $props = array_flip($this->getPropertiesList());
        return array_map(
            function ($item) {
                if ($item instanceof \DateTime) {
                    return $item->format(DATE_ATOM);
                }
                return $item;
            },
            array_filter(get_object_vars($this), function ($key) use ($props) {
                return array_key_exists($key, $props);
            }, ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY)
        );
    }


    /**
     * @return array
     */
    protected function getPropertiesList()
    {
        if (method_exists($this, '__sleep')) {
            return $this->__sleep();
        }
        if (defined('static::PROPERTIES')) {
            return static::PROPERTIES;
        }
        return [];
    }
}

class OrderResponse
{
    use ArrayAwareTrait;

    const PROP_ORDER_ID = 'orderId';
    const PROP_TITLE = 'title';
    const PROP_QUANTITY = 'quantity';
    const PROP_BUYER_USERNAME = 'buyerUsername';
    const PROP_COST_VALUE = 'costValue';
    const PROP_ADDRESS = 'address';

    private $orderId;
    private $title;
    private $quantity;
    private $buyerUsername;
    private $costValue;
    private $address;

    /**
     * @param $orderId
     * @param $title
     * @param $quantity
     * @param $buyerUsername
     * @param $costValue
     * @param $address
     */
    public function __construct(
        $orderId,
        $title,
        $quantity,
        $buyerUsername,
        $costValue,
        $address
    ) {
        $this->orderId = $orderId;
        $this->title = $title;
        $this->quantity = $quantity;
        $this->buyerUsername = $buyerUsername;
        $this->costValue = $costValue;
        $this->address = $address;
    }

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function __sleep()
    {
        return [
            static::PROP_ORDER_ID,
            static::PROP_TITLE,
            static::PROP_QUANTITY,
            static::PROP_BUYER_USERNAME,
            static::PROP_COST_VALUE,
            static::PROP_ADDRESS,
        ];
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getOrderId()
    {
        return $this->orderId;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getQuantity()
    {
        return $this->quantity;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getBuyerUsername()
    {
        return $this->buyerUsername;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getCostValue()
    {
        return $this->costValue;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getAddress()
    {
        return $this->address;
    }
}

$orderResponse = new OrderResponse(...);
var_dump($orderResponse->toArray());

Answer 28

$Menu = new Admin_Model_DbTable_Menu(); 
$row = $Menu->fetchRow($Menu->select()->where('id = ?', $id));
$Addmenu = new Admin_Form_Addmenu(); 
$Addmenu->populate($row->toArray());

Answer 29

Here I've made an objectToArray() method, which also works with recursive objects, like when $objectA contains $objectB which points again to $objectA.

Additionally I've restricted the output to public properties using ReflectionClass. Get rid of it, if you don't need it.

    /**
     * Converts given object to array, recursively.
     * Just outputs public properties.
     *
     * @param object|array $object
     * @return array|string
     */
    protected function objectToArray($object) {
        if (in_array($object, $this->usedObjects, TRUE)) {
            return '**recursive**';
        }
        if (is_array($object) || is_object($object)) {
            if (is_object($object)) {
                $this->usedObjects[] = $object;
            }
            $result = array();
            $reflectorClass = new \ReflectionClass(get_class($this));
            foreach ($object as $key => $value) {
                if ($reflectorClass->hasProperty($key) && $reflectorClass->getProperty($key)->isPublic()) {
                    $result[$key] = $this->objectToArray($value);
                }
            }
            return $result;
        }
        return $object;
    }

To identify already used objects, I am using a protected property in this (abstract) class, named $this->usedObjects. If a recursive nested object is found, it will be replaced by the string **recursive**. Otherwise it would fail in because of infinite loop.

Answer 30

By using typecasting you can resolve your problem. Just add the following lines to your return object:

$arrObj = array(yourReturnedObject);

You can also add a new key and value pair to it by using:

$arrObj['key'] = value;

Answer 31

Not a new solution but includes toArray method conversion when available

function objectToArray($r)
{
  if (is_object($r)) {
    if (method_exists($r, 'toArray')) {
      return $r->toArray(); // returns result directly
    } else {
      $r = get_object_vars($r);
    }
  }

  if (is_array($r)) {
    $r = array_map(__FUNCTION__, $r); // recursive function call
  }

  return $r;
}

Answer 32

function object_to_array(array|object $data) : array {
  $result = (array) $data;  
  foreach ($result as $key => $value) {
    if (is_object($value))
      $value = (array) $value;
    if (is_array($value))
      $result[$key] = object_to_array($value);
  }
  return $result;
}

Example:

class x {
  var $a = "hello";
}
class y {
   var $b = 1;
   var $c = 2;
   var $d = "abc";
   var $e = null;
   public function __construct() {
       $this->e = new x();
   }
}

var_dump(object_to_array(new y()));

Output:

array(4) {
  ["b"]=> int(1)
  ["c"]=> int(2)
  ["d"]=> string(3) "abc"
  ["e"]=> array(1) {
    ["a"]=> string(5) "hello"
  }
}

Answer 33

I tested it in Laravel Collections, this is working well.

function objectToArray($data)
{
    if (is_array($data) || is_object($data))
    {
        $result = [];
        foreach ($data as $key => $value)
        {
            $result[$key] = (is_array($data) || is_object($data)) ? objectToArray($value) : $value;
        }
        return $result;
    }
    return $data;
}

Answer 34

To convert an object to an array in PHP, you can use the json_decode() function in combination with json_encode(). Here's an example:

// Assuming $object is your object
$jsonString = json_encode($object);
$array = json_decode($jsonString, true);

In the above example, json_encode($object) converts the object into a JSON string. Then, json_decode($jsonString, true) converts the JSON string back into an associative array by passing true as the second argument.

After executing this code, the $array variable will contain the array representation of the object.

Keep in mind that this method works for most cases, but it may not preserve some object-specific features like private properties or methods.

If you're using PHP 7.4 or later, you can also use the get_object_vars() function to convert an object to an array. Here's an alternative example:

// Assuming $object is your object
$array = get_object_vars($object);

In this case, get_object_vars($object) directly returns an associative array representation of the object, where the array keys correspond to the object's property names.

Choose the method that best suits your needs based on your PHP version and specific requirements.