Can someone please explain to me what the "\" inside this php array do?

Question

Inside an AJAX call, there is the following php code:

$jsonOutput =
                "{
                            id: \"0\",
                            name: \"dauerreservierung\",
                            startDate: new Date('".date("Y-m-d", strtotime('-100 year',
                            $today))."'),
                            endDate: new Date('".date("Y-m-d", strtotime('+20 year',
                            $today))."'),
                            \"color\": \"#FF0000\",
                        }";

I really have problems following this syntax. What are all those slashes doing there? Why are the " connected to the slashes? And: Is an associative array created here?

They are escaping the double quotes since the entire block is already surrounded by double quotes. — Dave, Aug 07 '18 at 11:59
no matter how you skin it, this json is not valid json, so your mileage will definitely vary. — YvesLeBorg, Aug 07 '18 at 12:32

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '18 at 12:01

This variable is not an array, it's a string containing a JSON object.

In PHP, if you want to put quotes in a string, you have to escape them using \

Examples :

$my_life = 'I\'m eating an apple';
$json = "{\"id\": 1, \"value\": 42}";

You should try to echo $jsonOutput; to see what is happening

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '18 at 12:02

The backslash (\) is a special character in both PHP and JSON. Both languages use it to escape special characters in strings and in order to represent a backslash correctly in strings you have to prepend another backslash to it, both in PHP and JSON.

For more details refer this PHP manual http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.single

and refer to this StackOverflow link as well.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '18 at 12:12

0

if you are consuming this response in PHP, use

json_decode(input_string)

to get (backslashes) out of the json

If you are consuming in javascript, use

string.replace(/\\\//g, "/"); or JSON.parse(input_string)

answered Aug 07 '18 at 12:12

Pramod Patil

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if this ever gets to a php json_decode, it will fail. – YvesLeBorg Aug 07 '18 at 12:33
Yes, you need to make sure you follow the generic pattern while encoding and decoding the json – Pramod Patil Aug 08 '18 at 04:30

Can someone please explain to me what the "\" inside this php array do?

3 Answers3