'group', 'group'=>'group', 'groupid'=>'groupid', 'children'=>array( 'categories'=>array( 'key'=>'category', 'category'=>'category', 'children'=>array( 'names'=>array( 'key'=>'name', "nameid"=>"nameid", "alias"=>"alias" ) ) ) ) ); // pass sql result and data model to makenestedarray() to retrieve nested result $data = makenestedarray($sqlresult,$model); $jsonresult = array("groups" => $data); // serialize this mug, and return the string return json_encode($jsonresult); ?>