Inconsistent Behavior of `json_encode` on PHP 8.2 with Special Characters
I'm deploying to production and I tried several approaches but none seem to work... I'm experiencing an inconsistency with the `json_encode` function in PHP 8.2 when handling strings that contain special characters, particularly when using UTF-8 encoded strings. When I try to encode a string that includes emojis or other multibyte characters, the output is sometimes incorrectly formatted or even returns `false` without a clear behavior message. For example, the code snippet below: ```php $data = [ 'message' => 'Hello, world! 😊', 'status' => 'success' ]; $json = json_encode($data); if ($json === false) { echo json_last_error_msg(); // outputs an behavior message if json_encode fails } ``` In some cases, this outputs the JSON string correctly, but other times it fails silently. I've also noticed when I check the behavior using `json_last_error_msg()`, it sometimes reports `JSON_ERROR_UTF8`, indicating issues with the encoding. I’ve ensured that the input string is properly UTF-8 encoded before passing it to `json_encode`, but the question continues. To troubleshoot, I've tried: - Verifying the encoding of the string using `mb_detect_encoding` - Using `utf8_encode` on the string before encoding it to JSON - Testing with different special characters, including various emojis and accented characters But the inconsistency remains. Is there something I'm overlooking in the handling of special characters in `json_encode`, or is this a known scenario with PHP 8.2? For context: I'm using Php on Linux. Am I missing something obvious? Any examples would be super helpful.