Not getting correct output as expected using JSON_encode

[stephenrodrics]

Not getting correct output as expected using JSON_encode

I want [THOMAS,THOMAS ]

but output comes [{"username":"THOMAS"},{"username":"THOMAS "}]

Below is the code, can anyone help me why I get Field name also along with the output

$json = array();

$testingarray = mysql_query("SELECT username FROM $tbl_nameweek where manager = 'James' ") ;

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($testingarray))
{

$json[] = $row;
}
$sendArray = json_encode($json);
echo json_encode($json);

OUTPUT IS : [{"username":"THOMAS"},{"username":"THOMAS "}]
$delimiter1 = "username";

$splitcontents = explode($delimiter1,json_encode($json));

$counter = "";
echo "\n";
foreach ( $splitcontents as $element )
{

echo "\n";
print $element;
}


I want output only Thomas, I don’t know why Database fieldname is also getting added to JSON array, can anyone tell how can I only retrieve Thomas from this JSON array

[johnj]

Why do you want to Json encode the SQL output? Why don't you use the output straight away?
The reason why username is added to the Json encode is because that is the field name that you have selected in the SQL.