how to remove new lines and returns from php string?

Question

A php variable contains the following string:

text
text2

item1
item2         


        

Answer 1

Correct output:

'{"data":[{"id":"1","reason":"hello\\nworld"},{"id":"2","reason":"it\\nworks"}]}'

function json_entities( $data = null )
{           
    //stripslashes
    return str_replace( '\n',"\\"."\\n",
        htmlentities(
            utf8_encode( json_encode( $data)  ) , 
            ENT_QUOTES | ENT_IGNORE, 'UTF-8' 
        )
    );
}