How can you troubleshoot and optimize PHP scripts for handling JSON data from external sources?

When handling JSON data from external sources in PHP scripts, it is important to properly troubleshoot and optimize the code to ensure efficient processing. One common issue is inefficient parsing of JSON data, which can lead to slow performance. To optimize the script, you can use built-in PHP functions like json_decode() to efficiently handle JSON data and improve the overall performance of the script.

// Example code snippet for handling JSON data from an external source
$json_data = file_get_contents('https://api.example.com/data');
$data = json_decode($json_data, true);

// Check if JSON data was successfully decoded
if($data === null && json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
    // Handle error, such as invalid JSON format
    die('Error decoding JSON data');
}

// Process the decoded JSON data
foreach($data as $item) {
    // Perform operations on each item in the JSON data
    echo $item['name'] . ': ' . $item['value'] . '<br>';
}