How to use Laravel response()->json() to return empty object instead of empty array

Question

In Laravel 5.5

Route::get('/test2', function (){
    $data = (object) [];

    return response()->json($data);

});

it always returns [] rather than {}.

---

another code:

Route::get('/test2', function (){
    $data = (object) [];

    return json_encode($data);

});

it correctly returns {}

---

I want to use response()->json() helper to return empty object instead of empty array, is it possible?

Answer 1

This works in Laravel 5.6

Route::get('/test2', function (){
    $data = (object) [];

    return response()->json($data, 200, [], JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);

});

Answer 2

This works:

return response()->json(new stdClass());