Issue with retrieving JSON from MySQL using Laravel Eloquent and PDO causing unexpected data structure
I'm working on a personal project and I'm attempting to set up I'm updating my dependencies and I'm working on a personal project and Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy..... I'm encountering an issue when trying to retrieve JSON data stored in a MySQL column using Laravel Eloquent. The JSON data seems to be returning in a strange format that I wasn't expecting. Specifically, I have a table `users` with a column `preferences` that is defined as `JSON`. When I fetch the users and try to decode the JSON, it returns an associative array that isn't structured correctly. Here's the code I'm using to retrieve the data: ```php $users = User::all(); // Fetches all users foreach ($users as $user) { $preferences = json_decode($user->preferences, true); var_dump($preferences); } ``` I'm expecting the `preferences` field to return a clean associative array, but instead, I'm getting something like this: ``` array(2) { ["theme"]=> string(4) "dark" ["notifications"]=> array(2) { ["email"]=> bool(true) ["sms"]=> bool(false) } } ``` The structure is correct, but I need to access nested values directly, and it's cumbersome to navigate through the array like this. I tried using `->toArray()` on the collection or converting it directly into an object, but that doesn't seem to help. Here’s what I’ve attempted so far: - Used `json_encode()` on the preferences before saving, but it appears to be fine already since MySQL handles the JSON conversion. - Modified the query to select only the `preferences` field: `User::select('preferences')->get();`, but I still face the same structure issue. Any suggestions on how I can retrieve this JSON data in a more usable format? Am I missing something in the way I'm saving or retrieving? I'm using Laravel 8.x with MySQL 5.7. I appreciate any insights! I'm working on a web app that needs to handle this. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've been using Php for about a year now. Has anyone else encountered this? I've been using Php for about a year now. What would be the recommended way to handle this?