Add " and create own json array in php - php

Question

I my php file, I need to make my own Json array.
for($i=1;$i<$arraySize+1;$i++){
$idJson[$i]=$i.":".$birdIDArray[$i-1];
}
for($i=$arraySize+1 ;$i<$arraySize*2+1; $i++){
$idJson[$i]=$i.":".$rankArray[$i-($arraySize+1)];
}
When I use
print(json_encode($idJson));
the OUTPUT : ["0:3","1:15","2:3","3:14","4:1","5:2","6:2"]
But i need the output like this ["0":"3","1":"15","2":"3","3":"14","4":"1","5":2","6":"2"]
When I going to add " mark
for($i=1;$i<$arraySize+1;$i++){
$idJson[$i]=$i.'"'.":".'"'.$birdIDArray[$i-1];
}
for($i=$arraySize+1 ;$i<$arraySize*2+1; $i++){
$idJson[$i]=$i.'"'.":".'"'.$rankArray[$i-($arraySize+1)];
}
It prints like this
["0:3","1\":\"15","2\":\"3","3\":\"14","4\":\"1","5\":\"2","6\":\"2"]
How can I avoid from printing this \ sign?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you want a JSON object like this:
{"0":"3", ... }
The problem here is that Javascript/JSON distinguishes between key-value pairs, which are objects, and numerically indexed lists, which are arrays, while PHP uses arrays for both these things. With json_encode it depends on whether the PHP array is a continuously numerically indexed array, in which case you get a JSON array, or anything else, in which case you get a JSON object.
What you want is to force a JSON object even for a continuously numerically indexed array. The first question here would be: why?! But if you're really sure you want that (again, why?!), there's the JSON_FORCE_OBJECT flag in PHP 5.3+:
echo json_encode(array("3", "15", "3"), JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
// {"0":"3","1":"15","2":"3"}
But I'll say again that that's pretty pointless. If you use a regular array like ["3","15","3"], the keys to those elements are already implicitly 0, 1 and 2. There's no need to enforce them as object keys.