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[Parsing & Serialization](/categories/parsing) 4. / 5. belt/matter ActiveLibrary[Parsing & Serialization](/categories/parsing) belt/matter =========== Proper object traversal v0.1(11y ago)2253BSD-2-ClausePHPPHP >=5.4.0 Since Oct 25Pushed 11y ago1 watchersCompare [ Source](https://github.com/beltphp/matter)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/belt/matter)[ Docs](https://github.com/beltphp/matter)[ RSS](/packages/belt-matter/feed)WikiDiscussions master Synced 1mo ago READMEChangelog (1)Dependencies (1)Versions (2)Used By (0) Belt.`Matter` ============= [](#beltmatter) [![Latest Version](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/80f4fa069afb87580d21015d882d0441f29832dae8e66013ba359c57e5313be2/687474703a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7061636b61676973742f762f62656c742f6d61747465722e7376673f7374796c653d666c61742d737175617265)](https://github.com/beltphp/matter/releases)[![Software License](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/c5a67f4ed7839698b87147f1932d7c9a0b2545d5229c428d459bbe4f3017bcb5/687474703a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7061636b61676973742f6c2f62656c742f6d61747465722e7376673f7374796c653d666c61742d737175617265)](LICENSE)[![Build Status](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/85a1a911c3524fc74b713fa16638c320aed8ea6b6dcdcfd821ceb144a83afdd9/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7472617669732f62656c747068702f6d61747465722f6d61737465722e7376673f7374796c653d666c61742d737175617265)](https://travis-ci.org/beltphp/releases)[![Coverage Status](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/e9dc3e01848cf4cb1392a9d3e7a74dfd5b37cbbe0983babf0bc955888d120dd8/687474703a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7363727574696e697a65722f636f7665726167652f672f62656c747068702f6d61747465722e7376673f7374796c653d666c61742d737175617265)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/beltphp/matter/code-structure)[![Quality Score](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/201a6dc4020820be3c241a2f37059c2f5c587da8c7bbc6fdb44b4287501cfabf/687474703a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7363727574696e697a65722f672f62656c747068702f6d61747465722e7376673f7374796c653d666c61742d737175617265)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/beltphp/matter/) > Proper object traversal Belt.`Matter` is an utility library that makes working with JSON objects a bit (actually a lot) more pleasant. It converts JSON strings, objects or arrays to a proper tree structure that can be traversed without warnings or errors. Installation ------------ [](#installation) Via Composer. ``` $ composer require belt/matter ``` Usage ----- [](#usage) When we use JSON in PHP, we usually have to use the properties of the JSON object. This is really nice and all, but it doesn't work when a property does not exist. ``` $object = json_decode('{"foo":"bar","bar":[1, 2, 3, 4]","baz":"lorem ipsum"}'); $object->foo; // "bar" $object->something; // BOOM! ``` Well, that's not really nice, is it? We have to put guards around everytime we want to use a property. This is where Matter comes in handy! ``` // Before $object = json_decode('{"foo":"bar"}'); $object->foo; // "bar" $object->something; // BOOM! // After use Belt\Matter; $object = Matter::fromJson('{"foo":"bar"}'); $object->get('foo')->get(); // "bar" $object->get('something')->get(); // null ``` What Matter does for you, is convert a given JSON string or value into a tree structure. This allows you to request nodes from the tree without being afraid of errors/warnings that are thrown. You can always access any value in the JSON object. ``` $object = Matter::fromJson('{"foo":[1, 2, 3, 4],"bar":"lorem"}'); $object->get('foo')->get(0)->get(); // 1 $object->get('foo')->get(4)->get(); // null $object->get('bar')->get(); // "lorem" $object = Matter::fromJson('[{"name":"Alice"},{"name":"Bob"}]'); $object->get(0)->get('name')->get(); // "Alice" $object->get(1)->get('name')->get(); // "Bob" $object->get(2)->get('name')->get(); // null ``` Each Matter node also implements `ArrayAccess` and `Iterator`, which allows you to work even faster! ``` $users = Matter::fromJson('[{"name":"Alice"},{"name":"Bob"}]'); $users[0]['name']->get(); // "Alice" $users[1]['name']->get(); // "Bob" $users[2]['name']->get(); // null foreach ($users as $user) { $name = $user['name']->get(); } ``` Additionally, you can also safely access properties of the object without having to use get to retrieve the property node. ``` $object = Matter::fromJson('{"foo":{"bar":{"baz":42}}}'); $object->foo->bar->baz->get(); // 42 $object->baz->bar->foo->get(); // null ``` Contributing ------------ [](#contributing) Please see [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/beltphp/matter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md). License ------- [](#license) Please see [LICENSE](https://github.com/beltphp/matter/blob/master/LICENSE). ### Health Score 25 — LowBetter than 37% of packages Maintenance20 Infrequent updates — may be unmaintained Popularity14 Limited adoption so far Community7 Small or concentrated contributor base Maturity48 Maturing project, gaining track record Bus Factor1 Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window. **Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores. **Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement. **Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability. ### Release Activity Cadence Unknown Total 1 Last Release 4223d ago ### Community Maintainers ![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7c742d9a971e721439dab6897fa61e24052b4433845900a52480f66b90160793?d=identicon)[belt](/maintainers/belt) --- Top Contributors [![kleiram](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/323498?v=4)](https://github.com/kleiram "kleiram (10 commits)") --- Tags jsontreetoolkit ### Code Quality TestsPHPUnit ### Embed Badge ![Health badge](/badges/belt-matter/health.svg) ``` [![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/belt-matter/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/belt-matter) ``` ### Alternatives [justinrainbow/json-schema A library to validate a json schema. 3.6k316.9M612](/packages/justinrainbow-json-schema)[mtdowling/jmespath.php Declaratively specify how to extract elements from a JSON document 2.0k472.8M135](/packages/mtdowling-jmespathphp)[jms/serializer Library for (de-)serializing data of any complexity; supports XML, and JSON. 2.3k135.8M851](/packages/jms-serializer)[jms/serializer-bundle Allows you to easily serialize, and deserialize data of any complexity 1.8k89.3M627](/packages/jms-serializer-bundle)[colinodell/json5 UTF-8 compatible JSON5 parser for PHP 30422.2M45](/packages/colinodell-json5)[clue/ndjson-react Streaming newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON) parser and encoder for ReactPHP. 15267.7M16](/packages/clue-ndjson-react) PHPackages © 2026 [Directory](/)[Categories](/categories)[Trending](/trending)[Changelog](/changelog)[Analyze](/analyze)