JSON Encoding and Decoding in PHP

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is an open, lightweight, text-based standard format developed for the exchange of human-readable data.

In this article, we will explore JSON encode and decode in PHP. PHP provides json_encode() and json_decode() functions to encode and decode JSON.

PHP JSON Encode

The json_encode() function returns the JSON of a value which means it convert PHP variable into JSON format. Now we are going to see the examples of code.

Example – 1

<?php  

$arr = array('Name' => 'Harry', 'Email' => 'harry@gmail.com', 'Phone' => '9876323456', 'Salary' => '30000');   
echo json_encode($arr);  
?>

Output

{"Name":"Harry","Email":"harry@gmail.com","Phone":"9876323456","Salary":"30000"}

PHP JSON Decode

The json_decode() function decodes the JSON string, that is, converts the JSON string into a PHP variable.

Example – 1

<?php  
$arr = '{"Name":"Harry","Email":"harry@gmail.com","Phone":"9876323456","Salary":"30000"}';    
var_dump(json_decode($arr, true)); // true indicates to convert the returned object into an associative array
?>

Output

array(4) {
["Name"]=> string(5) "Harry"
["Email"]=> string(15) "harry@gmail.com" 
["Phone"]=> string(10) "9876323456" 
["Salary"]=> string(5) "30000" 
}

Also, refer

Different operators in PHP

How to parse JSON file in PHP?

How to convert JSON string to PHP Array?