json_decode error for empty string

[NotionCommotion]

The following script produces the following results when run on the two machines:

<?php
$json='';
$obj=json_decode($json);
$error=json_last_error();
$version=phpversion();
echo("$version | $error");

5.6.30 | 0

7.1.6 | 4

http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php tells me:

7.1.0 An empty JSON key ("") can be encoded to the empty object property instead of using a key with value _empty_.

7.0.0 An empty PHP string or value that after casting to string is an empty string (NULL, FALSE) results in JSON syntax error.

 

 

How do you interpreter these two lines?

   

 

[requinix]

Take a look.

[NotionCommotion]

Yes, I had those same results.  I just misread this line, and thought they were saying it wasn't an error:

7.1.0 An empty JSON key ("") can be encoded to the empty object property instead of using a key with value _empty_.

[requinix]

Right. It's a change in behavior: before they were using "_empty_" so that people could access it easily,

$object->_empty_

but with the complex {} syntax becoming more and more well known (especially when it comes to decoding a JSON object) PHP stopped "fixing" the key so that

$object->{""}

would work as expected.

[NotionCommotion]

Change in behavior always takes me for a loop!

[requinix]

There was a good reason behind the old behavior, but that's true for register_globals and magic_quotes too.