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The JSON result is breaking PHPs json_decode. To be exact, the following string is breaking decoding: "Sticky \x26amp; Sweet Tour".

Browsers however seem to be able to understand it: / & /

/ claims it's invalid JSON.

On PHP's side I've tried: and

Any thoughts on what's going on?

https://www.googleapis./freebase/v1/search?query=madonna#

The JSON result is breaking PHPs json_decode. To be exact, the following string is breaking decoding: "Sticky \x26amp; Sweet Tour".

Browsers however seem to be able to understand it: http://jsfiddle/nggX2/ & http://jsfiddle/QUVFt/

http://jsonlint./ claims it's invalid JSON.

On PHP's side I've tried: http://codepad.viper-7./suUbQD and http://codepad.viper-7./QjqCH7

Any thoughts on what's going on?

• php
• javascript
• json
• browser
• google-api

• Why are you trying to decode a string thats not in JSON format? – Michael Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 16:37
• Why do you say it's not in JSON format? – Slavic Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 16:44
• jsonlint. says invalid for me. I don't think \x notation is allowed in JSON. Shouldn't it be \u0026? – cmbuckley Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 16:48
• It is just a string, it can contain whatever characters you want it to contain. The problem is JSON parser is crashing. It seems this string is ing from/to xml, but that's not the issue. – Kekoa Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 17:29
• What is actually in the database for that value? Is it "Sticky \x26amp; Sweet Tour", "Sticky & Sweet Tour", or "Sticky & Sweet Tour" ? – Kekoa Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 17:38

2 Answers 2

What's going on is that this is invalid JSON. The response from that url is incorrect--JSON doesn't allow the \xXX two-digit hexadecimal binary escape sequences, only \uXXXX unicode code point escape sequences. Here it should just be &, though--no escape sequence needed.

No idea why google/freebase is outputting invalid JSON.

Your JSON should look like the following:

"Sticky \\x26amp; SweetTour"

The slash needs to be escaped, because it is the escape char.