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

• PHP 8.5+ only, with enums/readonly tokens and no eval.
• Works with arrays, objects, and ArrayAccess/traversables in any combination.
• Unions cover slices/queries/wildcards/multi-key strings (quoted or unquoted); negative indexes and escaped bracket notation are supported.
• Filters support path-to-path/root comparisons, regex, in/nin/!in, deep equality, RFC-style null existence/value handling, and literal-only short-circuiting (e.g., ?(true), ?(false), && false, || true).
• Tokenized parsing with internal caching; lightweight manual runner to try bundled examples quickly.

Requires PHP 8.5 or newer.

composer require softcreatr/jsonpath:"^1.0"

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);

Script execution is intentionally not supported:

• It would require eval, which we avoid.
• Behavior would diverge across languages and defeat having a portable expression syntax.

Supported filter/query patterns (200+ cases covered in the comparison suite):

[?(@._KEY_ _OPERATOR_ _VALUE_)]
  Operators: ==, =, !=, <>, !==, <, >, <=, >=, =~, in, nin, !in

Examples:
[?(@.title == "A string")]      // equality
[?(@.title = "A string")]       // SQL-style equals
[?(@.price < 10)]               // numeric comparisons
[?(@.title =~ /^a(nother)?/i)]  // regex
[?(@.title in ["A","B"])]       // membership
[?(@.title nin ["A"])]          // not in
[?(@.title !in ["A"])]          // alternate not in
[?(@.key == @.other)]           // path-to-path comparison
[?(@.key == $.rootValue)]       // root reference
[?(@)] or [?(@==@)]             // truthy/tautology
[?(@.length)]                   // existence checks
[?(@['weird-key']=="ok")]       // bracket-escaped keys and negative indexes

A full list of (un)supported filter/query patterns 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