Prevent quoting of certain values with PHP json_encode()

Question

When using PHP\'s json_encode to encode an array as a JSON string, is there any way at all to prevent the function from quoting specific values in the returned string? The r

Answer 1

Bill's function almost worked, it just needed the is_assoc() function added.

But while I was sorting this out, I cleaned it up a bit. This seems to work quite well for me:

is_assoc($properties);

        $enc_left  = $is_assoc ? '{' : '[';
        $enc_right = $is_assoc ? '}' : ']';

        $outputArray = array();

        foreach ($properties as $prop => $value) {

            if ((is_array($value) && !empty($value)) || (is_string($value) && strlen(trim(str_replace($this->jsexp, '', $value))) > 0) || is_int($value) || is_float($value) || is_bool($value)) {

                $output = (is_string($prop)) ? $prop.': ' : '';

                if (is_array($value)) {
                    $output .= $this->encode($value);
                }
                else if (is_string($value)) {
                    $output .= (substr($value, 0, strlen($this->jsexp)) == $this->jsexp) ?  substr($value, strlen($this->jsexp))  : json_encode($value);
                }
                else {
                    $output .= json_encode($value);
                }


                $outputArray[] = $output;
            }
        }

        $fullOutput = implode(', ', $outputArray);

        return $enc_left . $fullOutput . $enc_right;
    }

    /**
     * JS expression
     *
     * Prefixes a string with the JS expression flag
     * Strings with this flag will not be quoted by encode() so they are evaluated as expressions
     *
     * @param   string  $str
     * @return  string
     */
    function js($str) {
        return $this->jsexp.$str;
    }
}