Unable to decode JSON stripslashed String?

Question

Does anyone know why this happens?

var_dump(json_decode(stripslashes(json_encode(array("O'Reiley"))))); // array(1) { [0]=> string(8) "O'Reiley" } 
var_dump(json_decode(stripslashes(json_encode(array("O\'Reiley"))))); // NULL

Are ' used at all by the JSON functions?

Answer 1

I don't know for sure, but json_last_error() should :)

My guess, though, is that json_encode() does something to the \' that the stripslashes() then breaks - e.g. add another "\" to escape the backslash.

Isn't fiddling with a json encoded string using striplslashes() before it's decoded wrong anyway?

Answer 2

I didn't look at it too deeply, but it looks like your code is

1. Taking a PHP Array and turning it into a json string

2. Mucking with that string

3. Trying to decode the mucked string as json

Think of it like this

$json_string = json_encode(array("O\'Reiley");
$json_string = stripslashes($json_string);      

//it's no longer json, its just some random non-conforming string
var_dump(json_decode($json_string))