PHP - html_entity_decode to entire array

Question

I am fetching JSON data for use in my website and I need to echo it, like this:

<?php
    $json = file_get_contents("/lang/translator.php"); // uses preg_replace to remove whitespace/newlines from my actual json file and then echo's it
    $i18n = json_decode($json, true);

    if (htmlentities($_GET['lang'], ENT_QUOTES) == 'en')
    {
        $arr = 'i18n_en';
    }
    else if (htmlentities($_GET['lang'], ENT_QUOTES) == 'ru')
    {
        $arr = 'i18n_ru';
    }
?>

And I use it like this:

<?php echo $i18n[$arr]['string_key']; ?>

The string_key holds in its value either a English or a Russian translation of my site, depending in which JSON array it is.

The problem:

When I upload my JSON file which holds Cyrillic characters (Russian) this happens:

хорошо --> &#1093;&#1086;&#1088;&#1086;&#1096;&#1086;

Every single Cyrillic character gets converted to HTML entities. So I found out I could use html_entity_decode() to counter that but imagine how time-consuming it is to do this for every single <?php echo $i18n[$arr]['string_key']; ?> call I have in my code. Isn't there any way around that? I tried passing $i18n to html_entity_decode() but it expects a string, not an array of strings. Any ideas?

My JSON example:

{
    "i18n_en":
    {
        "key0": "value0",
        "key1": "value1"
    },
    "i18n_ru":
    {
        "key0": "value0",
        "key1": "value1"
    }
}

Why are you calling htmlentities on the $_GET values? htmlentities should only be used when displaying a value in a page and you don't want it to be rendered as HTML. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 22:19
I just find this a good practice to defend against hacker attacks... Maybe I'll remove the calls. — Johny P.
– Johny P., Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 22:23

Rishab · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-27 05:48:11Z

6

If you want to run html_entity_decode() on an Array of strings you can use array_map. Like this:

$resultArray = array_map("html_entity_decode", $inputArray);

edited Nov 27, 2019 at 5:48

Rishab

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answered Apr 30, 2016 at 21:50

R Singh

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2 Comments

Johny P. Over a year ago

I get this: Warning: html_entity_decode() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given...

Pierre Over a year ago

It's not html_entities_decode but html_entity_decode.

RiggsFolly · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-20 17:38:09Z

3

Once you have set $arr, you could apply html_entities_decode() to every string in the specified language with a foreach loop.

Something like this:

if (htmlentities($_GET['lang'], ENT_QUOTES) == 'en')
{
    $arr = 'i18n_en';
}
else if (htmlentities($_GET['lang'], ENT_QUOTES) == 'ru')
{
    $arr = 'i18n_ru';
}

foreach ($i18n[$arr] as &$myString) {
    $myString = html_entity_decode($myString);
}

Edit. Two posible solutions to fix Warning: Illegal string offset 'i18n_en'.

1:

foreach ($i18n[$arr] as &$myString) {
    if(isset($myString)){
        $myString = html_entity_decode($myString);
    }
}

foreach ($i18n[$arr] as &$myString) {
    $myString = html_entity_decode($myString, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');
}

Or maybe, both combined. Let me know if this works please.

edited Feb 20, 2021 at 17:38

RiggsFolly

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answered Apr 30, 2016 at 21:50

nanocv

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6 Comments

Johny P. Over a year ago

This works but how to echo the new string? I tried doing echo $myString[$arr]['key']; but I get Warning: Illegal string offset 'i18n_en'.

nanocv Over a year ago

Hmm... is maybe some of those strings empty?

Johny P. Over a year ago

Yes, about 2~3 of the Russian strings are empty.

nanocv Over a year ago

Ok, I have two ideas for that warning, let me put it in the answer to make it simple to read. Johny P.

Johny P. Over a year ago

If I try to call it like $myString[$arr]['slang'], it doesn't. And I don't know any other way of calling it. If I just call echo $myString; I get a totally random string from the JSON array.

|

Flibio · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-30 21:50:06Z

0

You can use PHP's array_map() function to call a function over each item in an array. An example can be seen below.

$decodedArray = array_map("decode",$i18n);

function decode($toDecode) {
    return html_entity_decode($toDecode);
}

answered Apr 30, 2016 at 21:50

Flibio

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