how to retrieve nested JSON data from MySQL using PHP 8.1 and PDO
I've spent hours debugging this and Can someone help me understand Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... I'm working with an scenario where I have a JSON column in my MySQL database that stores user preferences as nested JSON objects. I'm using PHP 8.1 with PDO to retrieve this data, but I'm unable to properly access the nested values. The JSON structure looks like this: ```json { "theme": "dark", "notifications": { "email": true, "sms": false } } ``` When I run the following PHP code: ```php $sql = 'SELECT preferences FROM users WHERE id = :id'; $stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql); $stmt->execute([':id' => $userId]); $preferences = $stmt->fetchColumn(); ``` I am able to get the JSON string, but when I try to decode it: ```php $preferencesArray = json_decode($preferences, true); ``` I get the following warning: ``` Warning: json_decode(): behavior parsing JSON ``` I’ve double-checked the actual content in the database; it appears to be valid JSON. I also tried using `json_last_error()` right after `json_decode()` and it returns `4`, which signifies a syntax behavior. I've tried to troubleshoot by manually copying the JSON string from the database and testing it in an online JSON validator, and it checks out fine. I've also made sure that the column type in MySQL is correctly set to JSON. Is there a specific encoding scenario when fetching data with PDO that I might be overlooking? Any suggestions on how to diagnose this further or resolve the scenario would be greatly appreciated. For context: I'm using Php on Windows 11. What's the best practice here?