How to Encode Non-ASCII Characters in JSON with UTF-8 Using PHP\'s `json_encode`?

How to Return PHP json_encode with UTF-8 Encoding Instead of Unicode

When using PHP's json_encode function, by default, non-ASCII characters are encoded in Unicode format. This results in a JSON response with escape sequences like "u00e1" instead of UTF-8 encoded characters like "á".

Take this example:

<code class="php">$arr = array('a' => 'á');
echo json_encode($arr);</code>

The output would be:

<code class="json">{"a":"\u00e1"}</code>

To resolve this issue and return the JSON response with UTF-8 encoded characters, you can utilize the following approaches:

PHP 5.4 :

From PHP 5.4 onwards, json_encode provides the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE option. By setting this option, non-ASCII characters will be plain UTF-8 encoded without escape sequences.

<code class="php">echo json_encode($arr, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);</code>

Older PHP Versions:

For versions prior to PHP 5.4, you can implement your own JSON encoder that omits encoding non-ASCII characters. Alternatively, you can utilize Pear's JSON encoder and remove lines 349 to 433 from the encoding function.

Please note that the difference between {"a":"u00e1"} and {"a":"á"} is purely how they are written in JSON syntax. Both representations will be decoded into the same Unicode value by JSON decoders.

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