What is the json_encode function in PHP?

Overview

The JSONjavascript notation object format is favored when it comes to sending data over APIs. Although other formats can be used, the JSON format is most common.

In PHP we can convert arrays into JSON format. Both indexed and associative arrays can be converted. This conversion is done using the json_encode() method in PHP, which converts a value into a JSON object.

Syntax

json_encode($value, options,depth)

Parameters

  • ＄value: This represents the value/variable to be encoded.
  • options: The flags or options parameter is to specify options that you wish to apply to the method.
  • depth: Depth has a maximum value of 512 and must be greater than zero.

Returns

This method returns the JSON object of the value parsed.

Code

In the code below, the array variables ＄indexArray and ＄assocArray will be converted into JSON objects.

<?php
//An index array
$indexArray = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
//associative array
$assocArray = array("Peter"=>35, "Ben"=>37, "Joe"=>43);
// A string value
$aStringVal = "I am encoding this string";
$a = json_encode($indexArray) ;
$b  = json_encode($assocArray) ;
$c =  json_encode($aStringVal) ;
echo $a . "\n";
echo  $b . "\n";
echo  $c . "\n";
?>

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