Correct encoding for JSON numbers in PHP - php

Question

Let's say I have such JSON:
{
id: 1,
somevalue: "text"
}
and I want to create this JSON by PHP function json_encode. I can pretty easy get this JSON in form:
{
"id": "1",
"somevalue": "text"
}
or, using JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK, in form where "id" will be numeric, but "somevalue" can be either numeric or text, depend on its content.
How can I make JSON where "somevalue" always be in text format (with quotes). I'll parse it by other language, where it is important.

Answer 1

Make sure values you want to be non string (like int or boolean) are entered as such into your source array:
<?php
$a = array('id' => 1, 'really' => true, 'somevalue' => 'text');
var_dump( json_decode( json_encode( $a ) ) );
gives expected:
object(stdClass)#1 (2) {
["id"]=>
int(1)
["really"]=>
bool(true)
["somevalue"]=>
string(4) "text"
}
EDIT
If you want it always to be strings, then put strings in your array in first place:
<?php
$a = array('id' => '1', 'really' => 'true', 'somevalue' => 'text');
var_dump( json_decode( json_encode( $a ) ) );
would give
object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
["id"]=>
string(1) "1"
["really"]=>
string(4) "true"
["somevalue"]=>
string(4) "text"
}
but that kills the whole purpose of having different variable types.
Of you can convert your array prior json encoding:
<?php
$a = array('id' => 1, 'really' => true, 'somevalue' => 'text');
$tmp = array();
foreach( $a as $key=>$val ) {
$tmp[$key] = (string)$val;
}
var_dump( json_decode( json_encode( $tmp ) ) );
would give in the end:
object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
["id"]=>
string(1) "1"
["really"]=>
string(1) "1"
["somevalue"]=>
string(4) "text"
}

Answer 2

To make somevalue always in "text" format:
$somevalue1 = 1;
$somevalue2 = "text";
$json1 = array("id" => 1, "somevalue" => (string) $somevalue1);
$json2 = array("id" => 1, "somevalue" => (string) $somevalue2);
echo json_encode($json1); // outputs {"id":1,"somevalue":"1"}
echo json_encode($json2); // outputs {"id":1,"somevalue":"text"}

Answer 3

On PHP> 5.3.3., you can use json_decode($array, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK);
If you do not have PHP 5.3.3 or more I wrote this recursive function:
function json_encode_with_numbers($array) {
if(is_array($array)) {
if(count($array)>0 && array_keys($array) !== range(0, count($array) - 1)) {
echo '{';
$isFirst = true;
foreach($array as $key=>$item) {
if(!$isFirst) {
echo ",";
}
echo '"'.$key.'":';
json_encode_with_numbers($item);
$isFirst = false;
}
echo '}';
} else {
echo '[';
$isFirst = true;
foreach($array as $item) {
if(!$isFirst) {
echo ",";
}
json_encode_with_numbers($item);
$isFirst = false;
}
echo ']';
}
} else {
if(is_numeric($array)) {
echo $array;
} elseif ($array == null) {
echo "null";
} else {
echo '"'.str_replace(array('"', '\\'), array('\"', '\\\\'), $array).'"'; // escape special chars
}
}
}