PHP decoding and encoding json with unicode characters

Question

I have some json I need to decode, alter and then encode without messing up any characters.

If I have a unicode character in a json string it will not decode. I'm not sure why since json.org says a string can contain: any-Unicode-character- except-"-or-\-or- control-character. But it doesn't work in python either.

{"Tag":"Odómetro"} 

I can use utf8_encode which will allow the string to be decoded with json_decode, however the character gets mangled into something else. This is the result from a print_r of the result array. Two characters.

[Tag] => Odómetro 

When I encode the array again I the character escaped to ascii, which is correct according to the json spec:

"Tag"=>"Od\u00f3metro" 

Is there some way I can un-escape this? json_encode gives no such option, utf8_encode does not seem to work either.

Edit I see there is an unescaped_unicode option for json_encode. However it's not working as expected. Oh damn, it's only on php 5.4. I will have to use some regex as I only have 5.3.

$json = json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE); Warning: json_encode() expects parameter 2 to be long, string ... 

Answer 1

I have found following way to fix this issue... I hope this can help you.

json_encode($data,JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE|JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);