What are the best practices for handling JSON data in PHP for easy readability and editing?

When handling JSON data in PHP for easy readability and editing, it is best practice to use the json_encode() function to convert PHP arrays into JSON format, and json_decode() function to convert JSON data back into PHP arrays. To ensure easy readability and editing, it is recommended to use the JSON_PRETTY_PRINT option when encoding JSON data, which will format the output with indentation for better readability.

// Sample PHP code snippet demonstrating best practices for handling JSON data
$data = array(
    'name' => 'John Doe',
    'age' => 30,
    'email' => 'john.doe@example.com'
);

// Encode PHP array to JSON with JSON_PRETTY_PRINT option for easy readability
$jsonData = json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

// Output the formatted JSON data
echo $jsonData;

// Decode JSON data back into PHP array
$decodedData = json_decode($jsonData, true);

// Access and modify the decoded data
$decodedData['age'] = 31;

// Encode the modified data back to JSON
$modifiedJsonData = json_encode($decodedData, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

// Output the modified JSON data
echo $modifiedJsonData;