Question

Apparently, infinity and NaN are not a part of JSON specification, so this PHP code:

$numbers = array();
$numbers ['positive_infinity'] = +INF;
$numbers ['negative_infinity'] = -INF;
$numbers ['not_a_number'] = NAN;
$array_print = print_r ($numbers, true);
$array_json = json_encode ($numbers);
echo "\nprint_r(): $array_print";
echo "\njson_encode(): $array_json";

Produces this:

PHP Warning:  json_encode(): double INF does not conform to the JSON spec, encoded as 0 in /home/septi/test.php on line 8
PHP Warning:  json_encode(): double -INF does not conform to the JSON spec, encoded as 0 in /home/septi/test.php on line 8
PHP Warning:  json_encode(): double NAN does not conform to the JSON spec, encoded as 0 in /home/septi/test.php on line 8

print_r(): Array
(
    [positive_infinity] => INF
    [negative_infinity] => -INF
    [not_a_number] => NAN
)

json_encode(): {"positive_infinity":0,"negative_infinity":0,"not_a_number":0}

Is there any way to correctly encode these numbers without writing my own json_encode() function? Maybe some workaround?

Answer 1

According to JSON spec, there is no Infinity or NaN values: http://json.org/

Workarounds:

1. Reject using JSON (pure JSON), and write your own json_encode function, which will handle INF/NAN (converting to “Infinity” and “NaN” respectively), and make sure you are parsing JSON using something like result = eval('(' + json + ')'); on the client side.

2. Pre convert your IFN/NAN values into string values (‘Infinity’ and ‘NaN’), and when you are going to operate with those values in JavaScript, use the following construction: var number1 = (+numbers.positive_infinity);. This will convert string value ‘Infinity’ into numeric Infinity representation.