How to parse this JSON in PHP - json

Question

I build this JSON from my form generated on my website.
I now want to push the individual item's to the database, so I need to be able to pull out instruction by iteration.
$instruction0
$instruction1
and the ingredients which sit inside an instruction.
When trying to parse the JSON I get an error, I am not sure how to read it in PHP. (AKA PHP NOOB) I am able to get all my item's needed via Python without any issues.
Error
[
[
{
"instruction": "Enter text here...asdada"
},
{
"ingredient": "Beetroot",
"amount": "2",
"type": "grams"
},
{
"ingredient": "Beetroot",
"amount": "1",
"type": "grams"
}
],
[
{
"instruction": "Enter text here..sdfsdf."
},
{
"ingredient": "Carrot",
"amount": "2",
"type": "grams"
},
{
"ingredient": "Beetroot",
"amount": "525",
"type": "grams"
}
]
]

Answer 1

Have you tried json_decode with a second parameter 'true' to specify you want your output as an associative array.
json_decode($json, true);
Secondly, if you are posting this json string manually into your code, you need to wrap it inside quotes, so based on that
$json = '[ [ { "instruction": "Enter text here...asdada" }, { "ingredient": "Beetroot", "amount": "2", "type": "grams" }, { "ingredient": "Beetroot", "amount": "1", "type": "grams" } ], [ { "instruction": "Enter text here..sdfsdf." }, { "ingredient": "Carrot", "amount": "2", "type": "grams" }, { "ingredient": "Beetroot", "amount": "525", "type": "grams" } ] ] ';
$array = json_decode($json, true);
Then you can iterate through $array as normal