JSON to PHP Array

Example

Input:

{ "app": { "name": "Hyperion", "debug": true, "hosts": ["h1.example.com", "h2.example.com"] } }

Output (short syntax, single quotes):

[
    'app' => [
        'name' => 'Hyperion',
        'debug' => true,
        'hosts' => [
            'h1.example.com',
            'h2.example.com',
        ],
    ],
]

Type mapping

When to use associative vs indexed

PHP has one array type with both behaviours. JSON clearly distinguishes object and array, so the mapping is:

• {} -> associative (['key' => value]).
• [] -> indexed ([value, value]).

The generator always preserves the distinction; mixing the two in PHP is legal but confusing.

PHP-specific gotchas

• Numeric-string keys. PHP casts "42" to the integer key 42 in an array. If your JSON uses numeric strings as keys and you need them as strings, the array_combine round-trip will not preserve them.
• Large integers. JSON can hold integers larger than PHP_INT_MAX on 32-bit builds. The generator warns when that might happen.
• UTF-8. PHP strings are byte sequences; the generator emits UTF-8 literally. Ensure your .php file is saved as UTF-8 without BOM.

Use cases

• Config files: Laravel and Symfony both use PHP-array config. Dropping a JSON config vendor-style works well.
• Test fixtures: PHPUnit fixtures are cleaner as arrays than as JSON files loaded at runtime.
• Seeds: database seeders in Laravel often start as a JSON dump and become PHP arrays.

Common mistakes

• Round-tripping PHP arrays back to JSON. json_encode treats an associative array as an object and an indexed array as an array. If you mix them (['key' => 'val', 0 => 'x']), you get an object on the way out. Keep JSON-shaped arrays JSON-shaped.
• Double quotes with apostrophes. Single-quoted PHP strings need escaped \'; double-quoted strings need escaped \\" and variables interpolated accidentally if you are not careful. Stick to single quotes for data.
• Forgetting trailing commas. PHP allows them since PHP 7.3 and they make diffs cleaner. The generator adds them by default.