implementing PHP 8.1's json_encode() returning null for large arrays
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Quick question that's been bugging me - I'm trying to configure I'm optimizing some code but I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me... I'm working with a frustrating scenario when trying to encode a large data array into JSON using PHP 8.1. Specifically, when dealing with an array that has around 10,000 elements, the `json_encode()` function is returning `null`, which is unexpected. I've checked the behavior with `json_last_error()` and it indicates `JSON_ERROR_UTF8`. I suspect there might be some non-UTF-8 characters in the data, but I need to seem to find them. Here’s the part of the code that handles the encoding: ```php $data = []; for ($i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++) { $data[] = [ 'id' => $i, 'name' => "User $i", 'email' => "user$i@example.com" ]; } $json = json_encode($data); if ($json === false) { echo 'JSON encoding behavior: ' . json_last_error_msg(); } ``` I’ve tried running `mb_convert_encoding()` on the array elements to ensure they are UTF-8 encoded: ```php foreach ($data as &$item) { $item['name'] = mb_convert_encoding($item['name'], 'UTF-8', 'UTF-8'); $item['email'] = mb_convert_encoding($item['email'], 'UTF-8', 'UTF-8'); } ``` Despite this, `json_encode()` still fails. I also verified that the PHP `mbstring` extension is enabled in my configuration. Is there a more effective way to detect and fix these problematic characters, or is there a different approach I should take when working with such large datasets? Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! I'm working with Php in a Docker container on Debian. I'm working with Php in a Docker container on Windows 10. I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning Php. For reference, this is a production microservice.