PHP : Associative Array JSON ENCODE-DECODE

<?php
 
header("Content-Type: text/plain");
 
$dataIn = (object)array(
    "string" => "value 1",
    "array" => array(1,2,3),
    "assoc" => array("cow"=>"moo","dog"=>"woof"),
    "object" => (object)array("cat"=>"miao","pig"=>"oink"),
);
 
print "------ Data IN\n";
var_dump($dataIn);
 
print "\n------ JSON Representation\n";
$json = json_serialize($dataIn);
print $json;
 
print "\n\n------ Data OUT\n";
$dataOut = json_unserialize($json);
var_dump($dataOut);
 
function json_serialize($any) {
    return json_encode(json_wrap($any));
}
 
function json_unserialize($str) {
    return json_unwrap(json_decode($str));
}
 
function json_wrap($any, $skipAssoc = false) {
    if (!$skipAssoc && is_array($any) && is_string(key($any))) {
        return (object)array("_PHP_ASSOC" => json_wrap($any,true));
    }
    if (is_array($any) || is_object($any)) {
        foreach ($any as &$v) {
            $v = json_wrap($v);
        }
    }
    return $any;
}
 
function json_unwrap($any, $skipAssoc = false) {
    if (!$skipAssoc && is_object($any) && is_object($any->_PHP_ASSOC) && count((array)$any) == 1) {
        return (array)json_unwrap($any->_PHP_ASSOC);
    }
    if (is_array($any) || is_object($any)) {
        foreach ($any as &$v) {
            $v = json_unwrap($v);
        }
    }
    return $any;
}
 
 
 
print "\n\n------ Benchmarks\n";
gauge("json_serialize", 1000, function() use ($dataIn) {
    json_serialize($dataIn);
});
gauge("json_unserialize", 1000, function() use ($json) {
    json_unserialize($json);
});
gauge("json_encode", 1000, function() use ($dataIn) {
    json_encode($dataIn);
});
gauge("json_decode", 1000, function() use ($json) {
    json_decode($json);
});
 
function gauge($label, $times, $callback) {
    $tstart = microtime(true);
    for ($i=0; $i<$times; $i++) {
        $callback();
    }
    $tend = microtime(true);
    $took = ($tend-$tstart);
    print (ceil($took*1000)/1000)." to run $label run $times times\n";
}
 
?>