How to Encode UTF-8 Characters in PHP JSON Output without Unicode Escaping?

Preserving UTF-8 in PHP JSON Output

Question:

How can you prevent PHP's json_encode function from escaping non-ASCII characters as Unicode sequences? The desired output is UTF-8 encoded characters, not unicode sequences. For example, an array containing the value "á" should be encoded as {"a":"á"}, not {"a":"u00e1"}.

Answer:

While the JSON specification allows for both encoding formats, {"a":"u00e1"} and {"a":"á"} are treated equally by JSON decoders.

For PHP versions 5.4 and above, json_encode provides the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE option. This option outputs plain UTF-8 encoded characters without escaping.

<code class="php">$json = json_encode($arr, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);</code>

For older PHP versions, consider the following options:

• Custom JSON Encoder: Implement a custom JSON encoder that omits character escaping for non-ASCII characters.
• Pear's JSON Encoder: Modify the Pear JSON encoder by removing lines 349 to 433. This section contains the escaping logic.

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