# PHP JSON Handling

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. PHP has built-in functions to handle JSON.

---

## 1. Encoding JSON
The `json_encode()` function is used to convert a PHP array or object into a JSON string.

```php
$age = array("Peter"=>35, "Ben"=>37, "Joe"=>43);

echo json_encode($age);
// Outputs: {"Peter":35,"Ben":37,"Joe":43}
```

## 2. Decoding JSON
The `json_decode()` function is used to convert a JSON string into a PHP object or array.

### Decoding to Object (Default)
```php
$jsonobj = '{"Peter":35,"Ben":37,"Joe":43}';

$obj = json_decode($jsonobj);

echo $obj->Peter; // Outputs: 35
```

### Decoding to Associative Array
Pass `true` as the second parameter to return an associative array instead of an object.

```php
$jsonobj = '{"Peter":35,"Ben":37,"Joe":43}';

$arr = json_decode($jsonobj, true);

echo $arr["Peter"]; // Outputs: 35
```

## 3. Handling Errors
You can use `json_last_error()` or `json_last_error_msg()` to check for errors during encoding or decoding.

[[programming/php/php]]