JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize

(PHP 5 >= 5.4.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

JsonSerializable::jsonSerializeSpecify data which should be serialized to JSON

Description

public JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize(): mixed

Serializes the object to a value that can be serialized natively by json_encode().

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns data which can be serialized by json_encode(), which is a value of any type other than a resource.

Examples

Example #1 JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize() example returning an array

<?php
class ArrayValue implements JsonSerializable {
private
$array;
public function
__construct(array $array) {
$this->array = $array;
}

public function
jsonSerialize() {
return
$this->array;
}
}

$array = [1, 2, 3];
echo
json_encode(new ArrayValue($array), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>

The above example will output:

[
    1,
    2,
    3
]

Example #2 JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize() example returning an associative array

<?php
class ArrayValue implements JsonSerializable {
private
$array;
public function
__construct(array $array) {
$this->array = $array;
}

public function
jsonSerialize() {
return
$this->array;
}
}

$array = ['foo' => 'bar', 'quux' => 'baz'];
echo
json_encode(new ArrayValue($array), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>

The above example will output:

{
    "foo": "bar",
    "quux": "baz"
}

Example #3 JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize() example returning an int

<?php
class IntegerValue implements JsonSerializable {
private
$number;
public function
__construct($number) {
$this->number = (int) $number;
}

public function
jsonSerialize() {
return
$this->number;
}
}

echo
json_encode(new IntegerValue(1), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>

The above example will output:

1

Example #4 JsonSerializable::jsonSerialize() example returning a string

<?php
class StringValue implements JsonSerializable {
private
$string;
public function
__construct($string) {
$this->string = (string) $string;
}

public function
jsonSerialize() {
return
$this->string;
}
}

echo
json_encode(new StringValue('Hello!'), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>

The above example will output:

"Hello!"