How to convert an array to object in PHP?

Question

How can I convert an array like this to an object?

[128] => Array
    (
        [status] => "Figure A.
 Facebook\'s horizontal scrollbars showing u         


        

Answer 1

Using json_encode is problematic because of the way that it handles non UTF-8 data. It's worth noting that the json_encode/json_encode method also leaves non-associative arrays as arrays. This may or may not be what you want. I was recently in the position of needing to recreate the functionality of this solution but without using json_ functions. Here's what I came up with:

/**
 * Returns true if the array has only integer keys
 */
function isArrayAssociative(array $array) {
    return (bool)count(array_filter(array_keys($array), 'is_string'));
}

/**
 * Converts an array to an object, but leaves non-associative arrays as arrays. 
 * This is the same logic that `json_decode(json_encode($arr), false)` uses.
 */
function arrayToObject(array $array, $maxDepth = 10) {
    if($maxDepth == 0) {
        return $array;
    }

    if(isArrayAssociative($array)) {
        $newObject = new \stdClass;
        foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
            if(is_array($value)) {
                $newObject->{$key} = arrayToObject($value, $maxDepth - 1);
            } else {
                $newObject->{$key} = $value;
            }
        }
        return $newObject;
    } else {

        $newArray = array();
        foreach ($array as $value) {
            if(is_array($value)) {
                $newArray[] = arrayToObject($value, $maxDepth - 1);
            } else {
                $newArray[] = $value;
            }                
        }
        return $newArray;
    }
}