Problems with charset in a json with data from a mssql database - php

Question

I got the following script that returns me the data of a mssql databse, it works fine however special caracters like "ç" "á" "ã", etc is displayed in a weird way.
From what i saw, as it is a mssql this can be a pain.. didnt find any exact response.
I tried to add this line in order to fix:
ini_set('mssql.charset', 'UTF-8');
"Database"=>"programaplo","UID"=>"--","PWD"=>"--","CharacterSet"=>"UTF-8");
header('Content-type: application/json; Charset=UTF-8');
The script
<?php
error_reporting(1);
ini_set('mssql.charset', 'UTF-8');
$serverName = "mssql3.gear.host";
/* Get UID and PWD from application-specific files. */
$connectionInfo = array( "Database"=>"programaplo", "UID"=>"--", "PWD"=>"--","CharacterSet"=>"UTF-8");
$conn = sqlsrv_connect($serverName, $connectionInfo);
if( $conn ) {
echo "Connection established.<br />";
}else{
echo "Connection could not be established.<br />";
die( print_r( sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}
$tsql = "SELECT * FROM Obras";
$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $tsql);
if( $stmt === false ) {
echo "Error in executing query.</br>";
die( print_r( sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}
echo "Query: sucesso \n";
$json = array();
while ($row = sqlsrv_fetch_array($stmt, SQLSRV_FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$json[] = $row;
}
header('Content-type: application/json; Charset=UTF-8');
echo json_encode($json);
sqlsrv_free_stmt($stmt);
sqlsrv_close($conn); //Close the connnectiokn first
exit();
?>
The result:
{"Id":2,"NomeObra":"Super Olimpia","idCliente":"Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Super Olimpia","DataPLevantamento":"4 de agosto de 2016","DataRLevantamento":"4 de agosto de 2016","Estado":"Obra conclu\u00edda ","DataRMateriais":"6 de setembro de 2016","DataInicioObra":"18 de setembro de 2016","DataConclusao":"20 de outubro de 2016","DataVestoria":"18 de setembro de 2016","Obs":"","Prompor":"Gas Fenosa","Levantpor":"Ploran\/Paulo","executpor":"Ploran"}
The issue:
Associa\u00e7\u00e3o

Answer 1

Associa\u00e7\u00e3o is the official way to encode binary (or non-ASCII) characters in JSON.
Every Json parser [can|should] understand this notation.
See : JSON and escaping characters