#50867 [NEW]: json_encode can't handle empty string keys

From: r at rcrowley dot org Operating system: Linux PHP version: 5.3.1 PHP Bug Type: JSON related Bug description: json_encode can't handle empty string keys Description: ------------ The specification outlined at http://json.org/ indicates that the empty string is a perfectly valid key in a JSON data structure. JSON implementations in Python and Ruby agree. PHP appears to go out of its way to handle the empty string as as key in a non-standard way. Reproduce code: --------------- $ php -r 'echo json_encode(json_decode("{\"\":\"foo\"}")), "\n";' {"_empty_":"foo"} $ Expected result: ---------------- I expect to see exactly the same output from PHP as seen from Ruby and Python: $ ruby -rjson -e 'puts JSON.parse("{\"\":\"foo\"}").to_json' {"":"foo"} $ python -c 'import json; print(json.dumps(json.loads("{\"\":\"foo\"}")))' {"": "foo"} $ Actual result: -------------- $ php -r 'echo json_encode(json_decode("{\"\":\"foo\"}")), "\n";' {"_empty_":"foo"} $ -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=50867&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.2): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=trysnapshot52 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (PHP 6.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=trysnapshot60 Fixed in SVN: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=needdocs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=php4 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=50867&r=mysqlcfg