How to keep json_encode() from dropping strings with invalid characters

Question

Is there a way to keep json_encode() from returning null for a string that contains an invalid (non-UTF-8) character?

It can be a pain in the ass to debug in a complex system. It would be much more fitting to actually see the invalid character, or at least have it omitted. As it stands, json_encode() will silently drop the entire string.

Example (in UTF-8):

$string = 
  array(utf8_decode("Düsseldorf"), // Deliberately produce broken string
        "Washington",
        "Nairobi"); 

print_r(json_encode($string));

Results in

[null,"Washington","Nairobi"]

Desired result:

["D�sseldorf","Washington","Nairobi"]

Note: I am not looking to make broken strings work in json_encode(). I am looking for ways to make it easier to diagnose encoding errors. A null string isn't helpful for that.

Solution 1

php does try to spew an error, but only if you turn display_errors off. This is odd because the display_errors setting is only meant to control whether or not errors are printed to standard output, not whether or not an error is triggered. I want to emphasize that when you have display_errors on, even though you may see all kinds of other php errors, php doesn't just hide this error, it will not even trigger it. That means it will not show up in any error logs, nor will any custom error_handlers get called. The error just never occurs.

Here's some code that demonstrates this:

error_reporting(-1);//report all errors
$invalid_utf8_char = chr(193);

ini_set('display_errors', 1);//display errors to standard output
var_dump(json_encode($invalid_utf8_char));
var_dump(error_get_last());//nothing

ini_set('display_errors', 0);//do not display errors to standard output
var_dump(json_encode($invalid_utf8_char));
var_dump(error_get_last());// json_encode(): Invalid UTF-8 sequence in argument

That bizarre and unfortunate behavior is related to this bug https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=47494 and a few others, and doesn't look like it will ever be fixed.

workaround:

Cleaning the string before passing it to json_encode may be a workable solution.

$stripped_of_invalid_utf8_chars_string = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $orig_string);
if ($stripped_of_invalid_utf8_chars_string !== $orig_string) {
    // one or more chars were invalid, and so they were stripped out.
    // if you need to know where in the string the first stripped character was, 
    // then see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7475437/find-first-character-that-is-different-between-two-strings
}
$json = json_encode($stripped_of_invalid_utf8_chars_string);

http://php.net/manual/en/function.iconv.php

The manual says

//IGNORE silently discards characters that are illegal in the target charset.

So by first removing the problematic characters, in theory json_encode() shouldnt get anything it will choke on and fail with. I haven't verified that the output of iconv with the //IGNORE flag is perfectly compatible with json_encodes notion of what valid utf8 characters are, so buyer beware...as there may be edge cases where it still fails. ugh, I hate character set issues.

Edit
in php 7.2+, there seems to be some new flags for json_encode: JSON_INVALID_UTF8_IGNORE and JSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTE
There's not much documentation yet, but for now, this test should help you understand expected behavior: https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/ext/json/tests/json_encode_invalid_utf8.phpt

And, in php 7.3+ there's the new flag JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR. See http://php.net/manual/en/class.jsonexception.php

Solution 2

This function will remove all invalid UTF8 chars from a string:

function removeInvalidChars( $text) {
    $regex = '/( [\x00-\x7F] | [\xC0-\xDF][\x80-\xBF] | [\xE0-\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2} | [\xF0-\xF7][\x80-\xBF]{3} ) | ./x';
    return preg_replace($regex, '$1', $text);
}

I use it after converting an Excel document to json, as Excel docs aren't guaranteed to be in UTF8.

I don't think there's a particularly sensible way of converting invalid chars to a visible but valid character. You could replace invalid chars with U+FFFD which is the unicode replacement character by turning the regex above around, but that really doesn't provide a better user experience than just dropping invalid chars.

Solution 3

$s = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $s);

This solved the problem. I am not sure why the guys from php haven't made the life easier by fixing json_encode().

Anyway using the above allows json_encode() to create object even if the data contains special characters (swedish letters for example).

You can then use the result in javascript without the need of decoding the data back to its original encoding (with escape(), unescape(), encodeURIComponent(), decodeURIComponent());

I am using it like this in php (smarty):

$template = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $screen->fetch("my_template.tpl"));

Then I am sending the result to javascript and just innerHTML the ready template (html peace) in my document.

Simply said above line should be implemented in json_encode() somehow in order to allow it to work with any encoding.

Solution 4

You need to know the encoding of all strings you're dealing with, or you're entering a world of pain.

UTF-8 is an easy encoding to use. Also, JSON is defined to use UTF-8 (http://www.json.org/JSONRequest.html). So why not use it?

Short answer: the way to avoid json_encode() dropping your strings is to make sure they are valid UTF-8.

Solution 5

Instead of using the iconv function, you can direclty use the json_encode with the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE option ( >= PHP5.4.0 )

Make sure you put "charset=utf-8" in the header of your php file:

header('Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8');

View more solutions

Comments

[Matt Ball]

Is the string "Düsseldorf" invalid only when you utf8_decode() it?

[Pekka]

@Matt no, that was just an example to create a broken string for answerers to test

[Gumbo]

So you’re getting some JSON data that may include invalid UTF-8 strings?

[Pekka]

@Gumbo yup, that might happen. It just took me an hour to find out that a wrongly encoded text file was the problem. I'm looking for a way to recognize the broken encoding at once next time (i.e. D�sseldorf)

[Gumbo]

@Pekka: Well, you could use regular expressions to validate it first.

[cjimti]

I just write a wrapper for my json decoder that checks the string first using mb_detect_encoding($str).

[Pekka]

Gumbo yeah, I may have to fall back on that. It would be nice to be able to tweak json_encode() somehow but I don't see any settings to do that @cjimti interesting idea.

[Gumbo]

Wait – are we talking about json_encode or json_decode?

[Pekka]

@Gumbo en code in this case

[Gumbo]

@Pekka: Then I’m afraid that you have to writer your own JSON generator that can deal with invalid UTF sequences.

[Pekka]

@Gumbo yeah, I'm beginning to fear the same. Yuck!

[mario]

There is a json_encode() implementation in upgradephp.berlios.de - it doesn't care much about the charset in the first place. But I guess the one from ZendF could be adapted as easily.

[Finesse]

You are lucky. My json_encode returns false if there is a wrong character in any place of encoded array.

[Pekka]

Yeah, true and I'm aware of that. As I said, it just becomes incredibly difficult to debug a broken incoming encoding when suddenly, parts of your JSON simply start vanishing (instead of looking broken). This is more to find errors more easily than to circumvent the broken encoding itself

[Pekka]

Interesting and sounds weird! I'll look into this tomorrow. A warning would be enough for me

[metamatt]

Wrap or replace json_decode() with something that tests the encoding of each string, and complains somewhere you'll actually see it when any string is not valid UTF-8?

[Pekka]

the iconv() idea looks intriguing and might just work. I'll try that tomorrow as well.

[Pekka]

This worked for me. I am iconv() ing the data now before json_encoding it.

[Ry-]

@Pekka: I just came across this, and it's probably not relevant now, but utf8_encodeing everything in the array works instead of using iconv.

[Pekka]

@minitech thanks! The core of the issue in this specific case however is how json_encode deals with faulty data. It drops it silently and completely, and that disturbs the process (as there's no way to tell what happened).

[Pekka]

I don't see how this would help - all JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE seems to do is it won't convert Unicode characters into \uxxxx entities? It doesn't mean it won't result in an empty string when encountering invalid characters.

[Ross]

@Pekka - I think utf8_encode is for explicitly changing from iso88591 to utf8. iconv is more generally applicable according to php.net: php.net/manual/en/function.utf8-encode.php

[Wingman1487]

This worked great for me! I had seen something similar suggested in another thread but was missing the fact that I needed to add the header, thanks!

[Finesse]

How to make json_encode do wrong characters removing itself? Is there any flag for it?

[Ryan]

This didn't help my case: json_encode(iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', 'I’m gonna')) still shows \u2019 instead of ’.