About PHP Arrays and JSON

PHP arrays are versatile data structures that can store indexed values or key-value pairs (associative arrays). When converting PHP arrays to JSON, indexed arrays become JSON arrays [], while associative arrays become JSON objects {}. This tool parses PHP array syntax and converts it to clean, validated JSON format, making it easy to test array structures and prepare data for APIs or frontend applications.

• Converts indexed arrays to JSON arrays
• Converts associative arrays to JSON objects
• Handles nested and multidimensional arrays
• Supports both array() and [] syntax
• Preserves data types (strings, numbers, booleans, null)

How This Tool Helps You

This online PHP array to JSON converter helps developers quickly visualize and validate how their PHP data structures will look in JSON format without running PHP code on a server. Perfect for creating API documentation, preparing sample payloads for frontend developers, testing JSON structure before implementation, and learning the differences between PHP arrays and JSON formats.

The tool intelligently handles both PHP 5.4+ short array syntax [] and traditional array() notation. Enable pretty-print for readable output, toggle various JSON encoding flags like unescaped slashes and unicode, and choose whether to preserve numeric keys in associative arrays. The numeric check option automatically converts numeric strings to JSON numbers, useful when working with form data or CSV imports that store numbers as strings.