JSON Functions
PHP Manual

json_encode

(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PECL json >= 1.2.0)

json_encodeReturns the JSON representation of a value

Description

string json_encode ( mixed $value [, int $options = 0 ] )

Returns a string containing the JSON representation of value.

Parameters

value

The value being encoded. Can be any type except a resource.

This function only works with UTF-8 encoded data.

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.

Return Values

Returns a JSON encoded string on success or FALSE on failure.

Changelog

Version Description
5.4.0 JSON_PRETTY_PRINT, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES, and JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE options were added.
5.3.3 JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK option was added.
5.3.0 The options parameter was added.

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 all the options in action

<?php
$a 
= array('<foo>',"'bar'",'"baz"','&blong&'"\xc3\xa9");

echo 
"Normal: ",  json_encode($a), "\n";
echo 
"Tags: ",    json_encode($aJSON_HEX_TAG), "\n";
echo 
"Apos: ",    json_encode($aJSON_HEX_APOS), "\n";
echo 
"Quot: ",    json_encode($aJSON_HEX_QUOT), "\n";
echo 
"Amp: ",     json_encode($aJSON_HEX_AMP), "\n";
echo 
"Unicode: "json_encode($aJSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE), "\n";
echo 
"All: ",     json_encode($aJSON_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($b), "\n";
echo 
"Empty array output as object: "json_encode($bJSON_FORCE_OBJECT), "\n\n";

$c = array(array(1,2,3));

echo 
"Non-associative array output as array: "json_encode($c), "\n";
echo 
"Non-associative array output as object: "json_encode($cJSON_FORCE_OBJECT), "\n\n";

$d = array('foo' => 'bar''baz' => 'long');

echo 
"Associative array always output as object: "json_encode($d), "\n";
echo 
"Associative array always output as object: "json_encode($dJSON_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.

See Also


JSON Functions
PHP Manual