What is the purpose of json_decode in PHP and what are common issues that may arise when using it?

Issue: When using json_decode in PHP, a common issue that may arise is that the function may return NULL if the JSON string cannot be decoded. This can happen if the JSON string is malformed or contains invalid characters. Solution: To handle this issue, you can check the return value of json_decode to determine if the decoding was successful. You can also use the json_last_error function to get more information about any errors that occurred during decoding. 

$jsonString = '{"key": "value"}';
$data = json_decode($jsonString);

if ($data === null && json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
    // Handle decoding error
    echo 'Error decoding JSON: ' . json_last_error_msg();
} else {
    // JSON decoded successfully
    var_dump($data);
}

Keywords

json_decode PHP data conversion JSON parsing error handling

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