json_encode/json_decode - returns stdClass instead of Array in PHP

Question

Observe this little script:

$array = array(\'stuff\' => \'things\');
print_r($array);
//prints - Array ( [stuff] => things )
$arrayEncoded = json_encod         


        

Answer 1

tl;dr: JavaScript doesn't support associative arrays, therefore neither does JSON.

After all, it's JSON, not JSAAN. :)

So PHP has to convert your array into an object in order to encode into JSON.