php json_decode fails without quotes on key

Question

I have json data represented like this

{key:\"value\"}

(no quotes arround key...)

I want to translate it to an associative array.

Answer 1

If you can't turn that into valid JSON at the source, then you can use Services_JSON from PEAR to parse it, since adding quotes around the key is a non-trivial error-prone process.

Services_JSON will correctly parse the invalid key string.

Example:

$json = new Services_JSON();
var_dump($json->decode('{key:"value"}'));

Output:

object(stdClass)#2 (1) {
  ["key"]=>
  string(5) "value"
}