What are the potential pitfalls of using json_decode() without specifying the second parameter in PHP?

When using json_decode() in PHP without specifying the second parameter, the function will return an object by default. This can lead to issues if the JSON data contains arrays, as they will be converted to objects instead. To ensure that arrays are correctly decoded, specify the second parameter as true to return associative arrays instead of objects.

// Specify the second parameter as true to return associative arrays
$json_data = '{"name": "John", "age": 30}';
$array_data = json_decode($json_data, true);

// Now $array_data will be an associative array
print_r($array_data);