Nested array within an Array Object

I was hoping to figure out how I can have an array or an array object within another array object.

my desired output

{
  "staff": [{
    "name": "john doe",
    "another_array": [
        "something",
        "something2"
    ],
    "array_obj": [{
         "title": "something",
         "desc": "foobar"
    }]
  }]
}

I’ve tried something like

<input name="staff[]another_array[]">

and something like…

<input name="staff[]array_obj[][title]">

But none of the above works. It doesnt appear you can have nested arrays. Is this true?

[marioizquierdo]

Using the array[][nestedObjKey][] syntax works, but it will add keys to the object only if the key does not exist, and create new object elements if the key does not exist… Kind of magic behavior that may work great or be super-confusing.

To avoid confusion, I recommend explicitly specifying the array indexes (use [0], [1], [2], … instead of just []):

<input type="text" name="staff[0][name]" value="john doe" />
<input type="text" name="staff[0][another_array][0]" value="something" />
<input type="text" name="staff[0][another_array][1]" value="something2" />
<input type="text" name="staff[0][array_obj][0][title]" value="something" />
<input type="text" name="staff[0][array_obj][0][desc]" value="foobar" />

And then use serializeJSON with the option useIntKeysAsArrayIndex:

$('input').serializeJSON({useIntKeysAsArrayIndex: true});

This way you get exactly what you would expect:

{
  "staff": [{
    "name": "john doe",
    "another_array": [
        "something",
        "something2"
    ],
    "array_obj": [{
         "title": "something",
         "desc": "foobar"
    }]
  }]
}

[Windman1320]

@randallmlough If you don’t mind ,would you like to tell me how can you get that result ? My output in Chrome is not tidy as your result.