How can PHP developers ensure data integrity and avoid encoding issues when storing and retrieving JSON data in a MySQL database with utf8_general_ci collation?

To ensure data integrity and avoid encoding issues when storing and retrieving JSON data in a MySQL database with utf8_general_ci collation, PHP developers should use the json_encode() and json_decode() functions with appropriate encoding options. Specifically, developers should use the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE option when encoding JSON data to prevent Unicode characters from being escaped, and the JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES option to avoid escaping slashes. This will ensure that the JSON data is stored and retrieved in its original form without any encoding issues.

// Encode JSON data with appropriate options
$jsonData = json_encode($data, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);

// Store JSON data in MySQL database
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (json_column) VALUES ('$jsonData')";
mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Retrieve JSON data from MySQL database
$query = "SELECT json_column FROM table_name WHERE id = $id";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);

// Decode JSON data with appropriate options
$data = json_decode($row['json_column'], true);