Snippet: How to decode unicode in PHP strings (ሴ)

Once more a code snippet I'd like to find (again) to make life easier. This time, it's about decoding Unicode. Often you get strings with

Method 1: Decode using the json_decode #

The json_decode function does automatically convert Unicode strings:

$text = 'Elon \u2018Technoking\u2019 Musk';

echo json_decode('"' . $text . '"');    // prints "Elon 'Technoking' Musk"

You can wrap this in a helper function:

function unicode_decode($str) {
  return json_decode('"' . $string . '"');
}

$text = 'Elon \u2018Technoking\u2019 Musk';
echo unicode_decode($text);    // prints "Elon 'Technoking' Musk"

More details are on Stackoverflow.

Method 2: Unicode codepoint escape #

You can use a unicode escape syntax since PHP 7:

echo "\u{9999}";  // prints 香

Assuming you have a string containing \u9999 you can use a regex to add the required brackets.

You can find more information in the PHP docs.

🙏🙏🙏

Since you've made it this far, sharing this article on your favorite social media network would be highly appreciated 💖! For feedback, please ping me on Twitter.

Published