The toJson
method will return a JSON encoded version of the data stored within the collection instance. It internally does this by returning a call to PHP's json_encode
function, passing in any $options
that were supplied. Like the json_encode
function, the $options
parameter is a bitmask of the predefined JSON constants.
#Signature
1public function toJson(
2 $options = 0
3);
#Example Use
The following code examples demonstrate the basic use of the toJson
method:
1// Create a new collection instance.
2$collection = new Collection([
3 ['name' => 'Shirley', 'age' => 60],
4 ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 55]
5]);
6
7// Convert the collection to JSON.
8$jsonValue = $collection->toJson();
After the above code executes, $jsonValue
would contain the following value:
1[{"name":"Shirley","age":60},{"name":"John","age":55}]
Alternatively, a well-formatted value can be returned by passing in the JSON_PRETTY_PRINT
constant:
1// Create a new collection instance.
2$collection = new Collection([
3 ['name' => 'Shirley', 'age' => 60],
4 ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 55]
5]);
6
7// Convert the collection to JSON.
8$jsonValue = $collection->toJson(JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
This time, the $jsonValue
would contain the following value:
1[
2 {
3 "name": "Shirley",
4 "age": 60
5 },
6 {
7 "name": "John",
8 "age": 55
9 }
10]
#toJson
and Deeply Nested Data Structures
The toJson
method internally makes a call to PHP's json_encode
function. Unlike PHP's json_encode
function, the toJson
method does not provide a way to specify the depth (essentially how many arrays are nested inside of each other) to which data will be encoded, which is by default set to 512
. To convert a collection instance into its JSON equivalent with a depth greater than 512
, the following approach will be sufficient:
1use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
2
3// Create a new collection instance.
4$collection = new Collection([]);
5
6// Replace 512 with the desired depth.
7$jsonValue = json_encode(
8 $collection->jsonSerialize(),
9 0,
10 512
11 );
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