JSON Encode and Decode

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is one of the most commonly used data formats for exchanging information between servers and applications. In PHP, working with JSON is straightforward thanks to built-in functions that handle encoding and decoding efficiently.

PHP provides two essential functions—json_encode() and json_decode()—to convert data between PHP variables and JSON format. These functions are widely used when building APIs, handling AJAX requests, or communicating with external services. In this section, we’ll understand what encoding and decoding mean and how PHP makes JSON handling simple and reliable.

PHP have two built-in functions, json_encode() and json_decode().

Encoding and Decoding 

Encoding is used to bundle data with respect to a particular format. This process will be required to preserve data consistency. Decoding is a reverse process which reverts encoded data back to its original form.

json_decode()
json_encode()

The json_encode() function is used to encode a value to JSON format.

The json_decode() function is used to decode or convert a JSON object to a PHP object.