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json_encode
Returns the JSON representation of a value
Description
string json_encode
( mixed $value
[, int $options = 0
[, int $depth = 512
]] )
Parameters
-
value
-
The value being encoded. Can be any type except
a resource.
All string data must be UTF-8 encoded.
Note: PHP implements a superset of
JSON - it will also encode and decode scalar types and NULL . The JSON standard
only supports these values when they are nested inside an array or an object.
-
options
-
Bitmask consisting of JSON_HEX_QUOT ,
JSON_HEX_TAG ,
JSON_HEX_AMP ,
JSON_HEX_APOS ,
JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK ,
JSON_PRETTY_PRINT ,
JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES ,
JSON_FORCE_OBJECT ,
JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE . The behaviour of these
constants is described on
the JSON constants page.
-
depth
-
Set the maximum depth. Must be greater than zero.
Return Values
Returns a JSON encoded string on success or FALSE on failure.
Examples
Example #1 A json_encode example
<?php $arr = array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4, 'e' => 5);
echo json_encode($arr); ?>
The above example will output:
{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}
Example #2
A json_encode example showing some options in use
<?php $a = array('<foo>',"'bar'",'"baz"','&blong&', "\xc3\xa9");
echo "Normal: ", json_encode($a), "\n"; echo "Tags: ", json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_TAG), "\n"; echo "Apos: ", json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_APOS), "\n"; echo "Quot: ", json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_QUOT), "\n"; echo "Amp: ", json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_AMP), "\n"; echo "Unicode: ", json_encode($a, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE), "\n"; echo "All: ", json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_HEX_APOS | JSON_HEX_QUOT | JSON_HEX_AMP | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE), "\n\n";
$b = array();
echo "Empty array output as array: ", json_encode($b), "\n"; echo "Empty array output as object: ", json_encode($b, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT), "\n\n";
$c = array(array(1,2,3));
echo "Non-associative array output as array: ", json_encode($c), "\n"; echo "Non-associative array output as object: ", json_encode($c, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT), "\n\n";
$d = array('foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => 'long');
echo "Associative array always output as object: ", json_encode($d), "\n"; echo "Associative array always output as object: ", json_encode($d, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT), "\n\n"; ?>
The above example will output:
Normal: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Tags: ["\u003Cfoo\u003E","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Apos: ["<foo>","\u0027bar\u0027","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Quot: ["<foo>","'bar'","\u0022baz\u0022","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Amp: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","\u0026blong\u0026","\u00e9"]
Unicode: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","é"]
All: ["\u003Cfoo\u003E","\u0027bar\u0027","\u0022baz\u0022","\u0026blong\u0026","é"]
Empty array output as array: []
Empty array output as object: {}
Non-associative array output as array: [[1,2,3]]
Non-associative array output as object: {"0":{"0":1,"1":2,"2":3}}
Associative array always output as object: {"foo":"bar","baz":"long"}
Associative array always output as object: {"foo":"bar","baz":"long"}
Example #3 Sequential versus non-sequential array example
<?php echo "Sequential array".PHP_EOL; $sequential = array("foo", "bar", "baz", "blong"); var_dump( $sequential, json_encode($sequential) );
echo PHP_EOL."Non-sequential array".PHP_EOL; $nonsequential = array(1=>"foo", 2=>"bar", 3=>"baz", 4=>"blong"); var_dump( $nonsequential, json_encode($nonsequential) );
echo PHP_EOL."Sequential array with one key unset".PHP_EOL; unset($sequential[1]); var_dump( $sequential, json_encode($sequential) ); ?>
The above example will output:
Sequential array
array(4) {
[0]=>
string(3) "foo"
[1]=>
string(3) "bar"
[2]=>
string(3) "baz"
[3]=>
string(5) "blong"
}
string(27) "["foo","bar","baz","blong"]"
Non-sequential array
array(4) {
[1]=>
string(3) "foo"
[2]=>
string(3) "bar"
[3]=>
string(3) "baz"
[4]=>
string(5) "blong"
}
string(43) "{"1":"foo","2":"bar","3":"baz","4":"blong"}"
Sequential array with one key unset
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(3) "foo"
[2]=>
string(3) "baz"
[3]=>
string(5) "blong"
}
string(33) "{"0":"foo","2":"baz","3":"blong"}"
Notes
Note:
In the event of a failure to encode, json_last_error
can be used to determine the exact nature of the error.
Note:
When encoding an array, if the keys are not a continuous numeric
sequence starting from 0, all keys are encoded as strings, and
specified explicitly for each key-value pair.
Note:
Like the reference JSON encoder, json_encode will
generate JSON that is a simple value (that is, neither an object nor an
array) if given a string, integer,
float or boolean as an input
value . While most decoders will accept these values
as valid JSON, some may not, as the specification is ambiguous on this
point.
To summarise, always test that your JSON decoder can handle the output you
generate from json_encode.
See Also
- JsonSerializable
- json_decode
- json_last_error
- serialize
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