Decode JSON safely in PHP
Parse JSON with exceptions on error and a depth limit, instead of silently getting null.
- PHP
- GreenSnippets
- MIT
- Executed with PHP 8.2
<?php
/** @throws InvalidArgumentException when the payload is not valid JSON */
function decodeJson(string $json, int $depth = 32): mixed
{
try {
return json_decode($json, true, $depth, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
} catch (JsonException $e) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException('Invalid JSON: ' . $e->getMessage(), 0, $e);
}
}How it works
json_decode returns null both for the JSON value null and for invalid input, which hides errors. JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR turns failures into a JsonException. A depth limit protects against deeply nested payloads, and true returns associative arrays.
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