How to Return JSON from a PHP Script

In this tutorial, we will demonstrate the most effective way of returning JSON from a PHP script.

Below, you can see how to do it by setting the Content-Type header.

Here is how you should use the Content-Type header along with <kbd class="highlighted">json_encode</kbd>:

php content-type header, json_encode

<?php

$data = ['foo' => 'bar'] /** whatever is being serialized **/; 
header('Content-Type: application/json'); 
echo json_encode($data, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);

?>

Note: header() must be called before any output is sent to the browser.

Describing JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight format for storing and transporting data. It is commonly used to send data from a server to a web page. Syntactically, it is equivalent to JavaScript object notation.