encoding - Why does the PHP json_encode function convert UTF-8 strings to hexadecimal entities?

Question

I have a PHP script that deals with a wide variety of languages. Unfortunately, whenever I try to use json_encode, any Unicode output is converted to hexadecimal entities. Is this the expected behavior? Is there any way to convert the output to UTF-8 characters?

Here's an example of what I'm seeing:

INPUT

echo $text;

OUTPUT

База данни грешка.

INPUT

json_encode($text);

OUTPUT

"u0411u0430u0437u0430 u0434u0430u043du043du0438 u0433u0440u0435u0448u043au0430."

Answer 1

Since PHP/5.4.0, there is an option called JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE. Check it out:

https://php.net/function.json-encode

Therefore you should try:

json_encode( $text, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE );