Is it possible to return PHP array to front end in Ajax call? Yes, it is possible through JSON.
JSON: JSON stands for Javascript Object Notation, It is a light weight data interchange format
the JSON Format like
{"employees":[
{"firstName":"Sri", "lastName":"Ram"},
{"firstName":"John", "lastName":"Doe"},
{"firstName":"Krish", "lastName":"Rao"}
]}
In PHP we have pre-defined methods like json_encode() and json_decode() methods. The json_encode method takes the array as input parameter it returns the JSON format data. json_decode method takes the json format and it returns array.
Here we need json_encode method to achieve our goal
example:
arrayreturn_file.php
<?php
$arr=array(a=>1,b=>2,c=>3);
//convert the array to json format
print_r(json_encode($arr));
?>
The above code return {"a":1,"b":2,"c":3}
Here a,b, c are keys and 1,2,3 are values
ajaxcall.php:
<script>
var arr=new array();
$.ajax({
url: arrayreturn_file.php,
type:"POST",
success:function(data){
//parse the json data
var arr = jQuery.parseJSON(data);
// through keys we can access the values
alert(arr.a); // return 1
alert(arr.b); // return 2
alert(arr.c); // return 3
}
});
</script>
Note: Instead of JSON we can use XML also,but XML is the old technology than JSON
