How can I force PHP's json_encode integer values to be encoded as String?

Question

I\'m using PHP v5.6.

As i read that php json_encode function is automatically converting int to string. But not in my case. Json_encode is still return it to int not str

Answer 1

json_encode(['code' => 200, 'results' => [id=> strval(1)]]);

With strval() php will return

The string value of var.

Answer 2

In the link posted by Thomas in comments, one user suggests that you do this:

$data = json_encode(array_map('strval', $data));

This might not be the most efficient in terms of performace though, since every entry on the array will pass through the strval function.