PHP 8.3.0 RC 6 available for testing

json_encode

(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7, PHP 8, PECL json >= 1.2.0)

json_encode对变量进行 JSON 编码

说明

json_encode(mixed $value, int $flags = 0, int $depth = 512): string|false

返回字符串,包含了 value 值 JSON 形式的表示。如果参数是 arrayobject,则会递归序列化。

如果要序列化的值是对象,则默认仅包含公开可见的属性,或者类可以实现 JsonSerializable 控制其值如何序列化为 JSON

编码受传入的 flags 参数影响,此外浮点值的编码依赖于 serialize_precision

参数

value

待编码的 value ,除了 resource 类型之外,可以为任何数据类型。

所有字符串数据的编码必须是 UTF-8。

注意:

PHP 实现了 JSON 的一个超集,参考 » RFC 7159.

flags

由以下常量组成的二进制掩码: JSON_FORCE_OBJECTJSON_HEX_QUOTJSON_HEX_TAGJSON_HEX_AMPJSON_HEX_APOSJSON_INVALID_UTF8_IGNOREJSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTEJSON_NUMERIC_CHECKJSON_PARTIAL_OUTPUT_ON_ERRORJSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTIONJSON_PRETTY_PRINTJSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORSJSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHESJSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODEJSON_THROW_ON_ERROR。 关于 JSON 常量详情参考 JSON 常量页面。

depth

设置最大深度。 必须大于0。

返回值

成功则返回 JSON 编码的 string 或者在失败时返回 false

更新日志

版本 说明
7.3.0 flags 参数新增 JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR 常量。
7.2.0 flags 参数新增 JSON_INVALID_UTF8_IGNOREJSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTE 常量。
7.1.0 flags 参数新增 JSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORS 常量。
7.1.0 float 值进行编码时,使用 serialize_precision 代替 precision

示例

示例 #1 json_encode() 例子

<?php
$arr
= array ('a'=>1,'b'=>2,'c'=>3,'d'=>4,'e'=>5);

echo
json_encode($arr);
?>

以上示例会输出:

 
{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}

示例 #2 json_encode() 函数中 flags 参数的用法

<?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";
?>

以上示例会输出:

 
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"}

示例 #3 选项 JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK 例子

<?php
echo "Strings representing numbers automatically turned into numbers".PHP_EOL;
$numbers = array('+123123', '-123123', '1.2e3', '0.00001');
var_dump(
$numbers,
json_encode($numbers, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK)
);
echo
"Strings containing improperly formatted numbers".PHP_EOL;
$strings = array('+a33123456789', 'a123');
var_dump(
$strings,
json_encode($strings, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK)
);
?>

以上示例的输出类似于:

 
Strings representing numbers automatically turned into numbers
array(4) {
  [0]=>
  string(7) "+123123"
  [1]=>
  string(7) "-123123"
  [2]=>
  string(5) "1.2e3"
  [3]=>
  string(7) "0.00001"
}
string(28) "[123123,-123123,1200,1.0e-5]"
Strings containing improperly formatted numbers
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(13) "+a33123456789"
  [1]=>
  string(4) "a123"
}
string(24) "["+a33123456789","a123"]"

示例 #4 连续与非连续数组示例

<?php
echo "连续数组".PHP_EOL;
$sequential = array("foo", "bar", "baz", "blong");
var_dump(
$sequential,
json_encode($sequential)
);

echo
PHP_EOL."非连续数组".PHP_EOL;
$nonsequential = array(1=>"foo", 2=>"bar", 3=>"baz", 4=>"blong");
var_dump(
$nonsequential,
json_encode($nonsequential)
);

echo
PHP_EOL."删除一个连续数组值的方式产生的非连续数组".PHP_EOL;
unset(
$sequential[1]);
var_dump(
$sequential,
json_encode($sequential)
);
?>

以上示例会输出:

 
连续数组
array(4) {
  [0]=>
  string(3) "foo"
  [1]=>
  string(3) "bar"
  [2]=>
  string(3) "baz"
  [3]=>
  string(5) "blong"
}
string(27) "["foo","bar","baz","blong"]"

非连续数组
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"}"

删除一个连续数组值的方式产生的非连续数组
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(3) "foo"
  [2]=>
  string(3) "baz"
  [3]=>
  string(5) "blong"
}
string(33) "{"0":"foo","2":"baz","3":"blong"}"

示例 #5 选项 JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION 的例子

<?php
var_dump
(json_encode(12.0, JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION));
var_dump(json_encode(12.0));
?>

以上示例会输出:

 
string(4) "12.0"
string(2) "12"

注释

注意:

如果执行失败,可以通过 json_last_error() 函数来获取详细错误信息。

注意:

如果要编码的数组的键不是从0开始的数字,所有的键将会被当作字符串,并明确声明为 key-value 对。

注意:

参考 JSON 解析器,如果指定简单的 stringintegerfloatboolean 作为输入 valuejson_encode() 将生成简单的值的 JSON(既不是对象又不是数组)。虽然大多数解码器会接受这些值作为有效的 JSON,但有些可能不会,因为在这一点上规范是模棱两可的。

总而言之,应该测试下 JSON decoder 能否处理 json_encode() 生成的数据。

参见

add a note

User Contributed Notes 16 notes

up
102
bohwaz
11 years ago
Are you sure you want to use JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK, really really sure?

Just watch this usecase:

<?php
// International phone number
json_encode(array('phone_number' => '+33123456789'), JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK);
?>

And then you get this JSON:

{"phone_number":33123456789}

Maybe it makes sense for PHP (as is_numeric('+33123456789') returns true), but really, casting it as an int?!

So be careful when using JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK, it may mess up with your data!
up
4
elliseproduction at gmail dot com
1 year ago
Notice that JSON_FORCE_OBJECT will convert all non-associative arrays to objects. This is not necessarily a good solution for empty arrays.
If you want to convert only empty arrays to objects, simply convert them to empty object before use json_encode function.

For example:

<?php

$foo
=array(
'empty2object'=>(object)[],
'empty2array'=>[],
);

echo
json_encode($foo); // {"empty2object":{},"empty2array":[]}

?>
up
8
Istratov Vadim
14 years ago
Be careful with floating values in some locales (e.g. russian) with comma (",") as decimal point. Code:

<?php
setlocale
(LC_ALL, 'ru_RU.utf8');

$arr = array('element' => 12.34);
echo
json_encode( $arr );
?>

Output will be:
--------------
{"element":12,34}
--------------

Which is NOT a valid JSON markup. You should convert floating point variable to strings or set locale to something like "LC_NUMERIC, 'en_US.utf8'" before using json_encode.
up
2
ck at ergovia dot de
10 years ago
Attention when passing a plain array to json_encode and using JSON_FORCE_OBJECT. It figured out that the index-order of the resulting JSON-string depends on the system PHP is running on.

$a = array("a" , "b", "c");
echo json_encode($a, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);

On Xampp (Windows) you get:

{"0":"a","1":"b","2":"c"}';

On a machine running debian I get:

{"2":"a","1":"b","0":"c"}';

Note that the key:value pairs are different!

Solution here was to use array_combine to create a ssociative array and then pass it to json_encode:

json_encode(array_combine(range(0, count($a) - 1), $a), JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
up
5
ryan at ryanparman dot com
13 years ago
I came across the "bug" where running json_encode() over a SimpleXML object was ignoring the CDATA. I ran across http://bugs.php.net/42001 and http://bugs.php.net/41976, and while I agree with the poster that the documentation should clarify gotchas like this, I was able to figure out how to workaround it.

You need to convert the SimpleXML object back into an XML string, then re-import it back into SimpleXML using the LIBXML_NOCDATA option. Once you do this, then you can use json_encode() and still get back the CDATA.

<?php
// Pretend we already have a complex SimpleXML object stored in $xml
$json = json_encode(new SimpleXMLElement($xml->asXML(), LIBXML_NOCDATA));
?>
up
6
guilhenfsu at gmail dot com
10 years ago
Solution for UTF-8 Special Chars.

<?

$array = array('nome'=>'Paição','cidade'=>'São Paulo');

$array = array_map('htmlentities',$array);

//encode
$json = html_entity_decode(json_encode($array));

//Output: {"nome":"Paição","cidade":"São Paulo"}
echo $json;

?>
up
4
Sam Barnum
14 years ago
Note that if you try to encode an array containing non-utf values, you'll get null values in the resulting JSON string. You can batch-encode all the elements of an array with the array_map function:
<?php
$encodedArray
= array_map(utf8_encode, $rawArray);
?>
up
2
Walter Tross
7 years ago
If you need pretty-printed output, but want it indented by 2 spaces instead of 4:

$json_indented_by_4 = json_encode($output, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES|JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
$json_indented_by_2 = preg_replace('/^( +?)\\1(?=[^ ])/m', '$1', $json_indented_by_4);
up
-1
polygon dot co dot in at gmail dot com
2 months ago
JSON Encode Huge Data with minimum Memory footprint.

<?php
/**
* Creates JSON
*
* This class is built to avoid creation of large array objects
* (which leads to memory limit issues for larger data set)
* which are then converted to JSON. This class gives access to
* create JSON in parts for what ever smallest part of data
* we have of the large data set which are yet to be fetched.
*/
class JsonEncode
{
/**
* Array of JsonEncodeObject objects
*
* @var array
*/
private $objects = [];

/**
* Current JsonEncodeObject object
*
* @var object
*/
private $currentObject = null;

/**
* JsonEncode constructor
*/
public function __construct()
{

}

/**
* Escape the json string key or value
*
* @param string $str json key or value string.
* @return string
*/
private function escape($str)
{
if (
is_null($str)) return 'null';
$escapers = array("\\", "/", "\"", "\n", "\r", "\t", "\x08", "\x0c");
$replacements = array("\\\\", "\\/", "\\\"", "\\n", "\\r", "\\t", "\\f", "\\b");
$str = str_replace($escapers, $replacements, $str);
return
'"' . $str . '"';
}

/**
* Encodes both simple and associative array to json
*
* @param $arr string value escaped and array value json_encode function is applied.
* @return void
*/
public function encode($arr)
{
if (
$this->currentObject) {
echo
$this->currentObject->comma;
}
if (
is_array($arr)) {
echo
json_encode($arr);
} else {
echo
$this->escape($arr);
}
if (
$this->currentObject) {
$this->currentObject->comma = ',';
}
}

/**
* Add simple array/value as in the json format.
*
* @param $value data type is string/array. This is used to add value/array in the current Array.
* @return void
*/
public function addValue($value)
{
if (
$this->currentObject->mode !== 'Array') {
throw new
Exception('Mode should be Array');
}
$this->encode($value);
}

/**
* Add simple array/value as in the json format.
*
* @param string $key key of associative array
* @param $value data type is string/array. This is used to add value/array in the current Array.
* @return void
*/
public function addKeyValue($key, $value)
{
if (
$this->currentObject->mode !== 'Assoc') {
throw new
Exception('Mode should be Assoc');
}
echo
$this->currentObject->comma;
echo
$this->escape($key) . ':';
$this->currentObject->comma = '';
$this->encode($value);
}

/**
* Start simple array
*
* @param string $key Used while creating simple array inside an associative array and $key is the key.
* @return void
*/
public function startArray($key = null)
{
if (
$this->currentObject) {
echo
$this->currentObject->comma;
array_push($this->objects, $this->currentObject);
}
$this->currentObject = new JsonEncodeObject('Array');
if (!
is_null($key)) {
echo
$this->escape($key) . ':';
}
echo
'[';
}

/**
* End simple array
*
* @return void
*/
public function endArray()
{
echo
']';
$this->currentObject = null;
if (
count($this->objects)>0) {
$this->currentObject = array_pop($this->objects);
$this->currentObject->comma = ',';
}
}

/**
* Start simple array
*
* @param string $key Used while creating associative array inside an associative array and $key is the key.
* @return void
*/
public function startAssoc($key = null)
{
if (
$this->currentObject) {
echo
$this->currentObject->comma;
array_push($this->objects, $this->currentObject);
}
$this->currentObject = new JsonEncodeObject('
up
2
Garrett
15 years ago
A note about json_encode automatically quoting numbers:

It appears that the json_encode function pays attention to the data type of the value. Let me explain what we came across:

We have found that when retrieving data from our database, there are occasions when numbers appear as strings to json_encode which results in double quotes around the values.

This can lead to problems within javascript functions expecting the values to be numeric.

This was discovered when were were retrieving fields from the database which contained serialized arrays. After unserializing them and sending them through the json_encode function the numeric values in the original array were now being treated as strings and showing up with double quotes around them.

The fix: Prior to encoding the array, send it to a function which checks for numeric types and casts accordingly. Encoding from then on worked as expected.
up
-1
pvl dot kolensikov at gmail dot com
12 years ago
As json_encode() is recursive, you can use it to serialize whole structure of objects.

<?php
class A {
public
$a = 1;
public
$b = 2;
public
$collection = array();

function
__construct(){
for (
$i=3; $i-->0;){
array_push($this->collection, new B);
}
}
}

class
B {
public
$a = 1;
public
$b = 2;
}

echo
json_encode(new A);
?>

Will give:

{
"a":1,
"b":2,
"collection":[{
"a":1,
"b":2
},{
"a":1,
"b":2
},{
"a":1,
"b":2
}]
}
up
-1
mikko dot rantalainen at peda dot net
2 years ago
Notice that <?php $json = json_encode($x, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); ?> doesn't guarantee that $json is actually an object encoded with JSON syntax. It *only* guarantees that the output doesn't start with "[".

For example:
<?php
json_encode
("foo", JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); # "foo"
json_encode(42, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); # 42
json_encode(false, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); # false
json_encode("false", JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); # "false"
json_encode(10/3, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT); # 3.3333333333333335
?>
up
-3
Nick
7 years ago
Please note that there was an (as of yet) undocumented change to the json_encode() function between 2 versions of PHP with respect to JSON_PRETTY_PRINT:

In version 5.4.21 and earlier, an empty array [] using JSON_PRETTY_PRINT would be rendered as 3 lines, with the 2nd one an empty (indented) line, i.e.:
"data": [

],

In version 5.4.34 and above, an empty array [] using JSON_PRETTY_PRINT would be rendered as exactly [] at the spot where it occurs, i.e.
"data: [],

This is not mentioned anywhere in the PHP changelist and migration documentations; neither on the json_encode documentation page.

This is very useful to know when you are parsing the JSON using regular expressions to manually insert portions of data, as is the case with my current use-case (working with JSON exports of over several gigabytes requires sub-operations and insertion of data).
up
-1
DimeCadmium
1 year ago
> While most decoders will accept these values as valid JSON, some may not, as the specification is ambiguous on this point.

The specification (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259#section-2) is not ambiguous, whether you look at RFC8259, go back to RFC7159 or 7158 or 4627, look at (either edition of) ECMA-404, or even at JSON.org.

The original RFC - from 16 years ago, mind you - specified that the root level of JSON text could only be a object or array.

Literally every other standard - from as long as 9 years ago (RFC7158 and ECMA-404 1st Ed.) and as recent as 5 years ago (RFC8259 and ECMA-404 2nd Ed., both current standards) - makes explicit that any value can appear at the root.
up
-2
jakepucan at gmail dot com
2 years ago
It's also worth mentioning that adding charset is fine.

<?php
header
('Content-type:application/json;charset=utf-8');
json_encode(['name' => 'Jake', 'country' => 'Philippines']);
up
-4
spam.goes.in.here AT gmail.com
15 years ago
For anyone who has run into the problem of private properties not being added, you can simply implement the IteratorAggregate interface with the getIterator() method. Add the properties you want to be included in the output into an array in the getIterator() method and return it.
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