JSONPath for PHP 8.3+

This is a JSONPath implementation for PHP that targets portable RFC semantics and the JSONPath comparison consensus while keeping the API small, cached, and eval-free.

• PHP 8.3+ with typed class constants, enums, readonly tokens, #[Override], and no eval; CI covers PHP 8.3 through the PHP 8.6 nightly.
• Works with arrays, objects, and ArrayAccess/traversables in any combination.
• Supports child and descendant selectors, wildcards, quoted name unions, indexes, negative indexes, and array slices.
• Filters support existence tests (including descendant and nested filters), path-to-path/root comparisons, deep equality, and distinct RFC Nothing versus JSON null semantics.
• Malformed and non-portable legacy syntax is rejected instead of being interpreted as a different valid query.

Requires PHP 8.3 or newer.

composer require softcreatr/jsonpath:"^2.0"

Useful commands:

composer exec phpunit
composer phpstan
composer cs

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$data = ['people' => [
    ['name' => 'Sascha'],
    ['name' => 'Bianca'],
    ['name' => 'Alexander'],
    ['name' => 'Maximilian'],
]];

print_r((new \Flow\JSONPath\JSONPath($data))->find('$.people.*.name')->getData());

/*
Array
(
    [0] => Sascha
    [1] => Bianca
    [2] => Alexander
    [3] => Maximilian
)
*/

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$data = json_decode('{"name":"Sascha Greuel","birthdate":"1987-12-16","city":"Gladbeck","country":"Germany"}', false);

print_r((new \Flow\JSONPath\JSONPath($data))->find('$')->getData()[0]);

/*
stdClass Object
(
    [name] => Sascha Greuel
    [birthdate] => 1987-12-16
    [city] => Gladbeck
    [country] => Germany
)
*/

The options flag JSONPath::ALLOW_MAGIC will instruct JSONPath when retrieving a value to first check if an object has a magic __get() method and will call this method if available. This feature is iffy and not very predictable as:

• wildcard and recursive features will only look at public properties and can't smell which properties are magically accessible
• there is no property_exists check for magic methods so an object with a magic __get() will always return true when checking if the property exists
• any errors thrown or unpredictable behavior caused by fetching via __get() is your own problem to deal with

<?php

use Flow\JSONPath\JSONPath;

$myObject = (new Foo())->get('bar');
$jsonPath = new JSONPath($myObject, JSONPath::ALLOW_MAGIC);

Filter evaluation is intentionally limited to portable, eval-free operations:

• Comparisons support ==, !=, <, <=, >, and >=.
• Logical expressions support !, &&, ||, and grouped subexpressions.
• Singular current/root queries can be compared; non-singular, descendant, and nested-filter queries can be used as existence tests.
• Missing nodes use RFC Nothing semantics and are not conflated with JSON null.

Examples:

[?(@.title == "A string")]      // equality
[?(@.price < 10)]               // numeric comparison
[?(@.key == @.other)]           // path-to-path comparison
[?(@.key == $.rootValue)]       // root reference
[?(@.isbn)]                     // singular existence test
[?(@..child)]                   // descendant existence test
[?(@.items[?(@.price > 10)])]   // nested-filter existence test
[?(@['weird-key']=="ok")]       // bracket-escaped member

Script expressions, synthetic .length, regular-expression/membership operators, array/object literals in comparisons, and the RFC function extensions (length(), count(), match(), search(), and value()) are not supported. Unsupported syntax raises JSONPathException.

A full list of comparison cases can be found in the JSONPath Comparison Cheatsheet.

FlowCommunications/JSONPath is the predecessor of this library by Stephen Frank

Other / Similar implementations can be found in the Wiki.

A list of changes can be found in the CHANGELOG.md file.

MIT © 1-2.dev

This package is Treeware. If you use it in production, then we ask that you buy the world a tree to thank us for our work. By contributing to the ecologi project, you’ll be creating employment for local families and restoring wildlife habitats.

Sascha Greuel	James Lucas	Fabian Blechschmidt	Mikko Pesari	warlof	Sergey G
Alexandru Pătrănescu	Oleg Andreyev	Remy Suen	esomething