What is the purpose of encoding data as JSON in PHP and what are the potential benefits or drawbacks of doing so?

Encoding data as JSON in PHP allows for easy serialization and transportation of data between different systems or platforms. JSON is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write, and easy for machines to parse and generate. By encoding data as JSON, you can easily convert PHP arrays or objects into a format that can be sent over the web or stored in a file.

// Sample PHP code snippet to encode data as JSON
$data = array(
    'name' => 'John Doe',
    'age' => 30,
    'email' => 'johndoe@example.com'
);

$json_data = json_encode($data);

echo $json_data;