Ok, I found the answer. It was as simple as doing this: alert(data[0].name);
Notice the [0]. So here is the functional code for anyone who is wondering about this: javascript file --------------------------- jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('#storeListTable tr').click(function() { jQuery.post("get_storeData.php", { storeID: this.cells [0].innerHTML }, // this.cells[0].innerHTML is the content ofthe first cell in selected table row function(data){ alert(data[0].name); }, "json"); }); }); php file --------------------- <?php include_once('dal.php'); $storeID = $_POST['storeID']; //Get storeID from jQuery.post parameter $sl = new storeLocator(); $result = $sl->getStoreData($storeID); //returns dataset from MySQL (SELECT * from MyTale) while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $data[] = array( "id"=>($row['id']) , "name"=>($row['name'])); } $storeData = json_encode($data); echo $storeData; ?> Thanks for all your help guys!