Decontaminate text in PHP, preparing for json_decode

php-json-helper.php

/**
 * Text cleaner
 *
 * Primary sources:
 *  - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17219916/json-decode-returns-json-error-syntax-but-online-formatter-says-the-json-is-ok
 *  - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2348152/detect-bad-json-data-in-php-json-decode
 */
function decontaminate_text(
	$text,
	$remove_tags = true,
	$remove_line_breaks = true,
	$remove_BOM = true,
	$ensure_utf8_encoding = true,
	$ensure_quotes_are_properly_displayed = true,
	$decode_html_entities = true
){

	if ( '' != $text && is_string( $text ) ) {
		$text = preg_replace( '@<(script|style)[^>]*?>.*?</\\1>@si', '', $text );
		$text = str_replace(']]>', ']]&gt;', $text);

		if( $remove_tags ){
			// Which tags to allow (none!)
			// $text = strip_tags($text, '<p>,<strong>,<span>,<a>');
			$text = strip_tags($text, '');
		}

		if( $remove_line_breaks ){
			$text = preg_replace('/[\r\n\t ]+/', ' ', $text);
			$text = trim( $text );
		}

		if( $remove_BOM ){
			// Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31594983/1766219
			if( 0 === strpos( bin2hex( $text ), 'efbbbf' ) ){
				$text = substr( $text, 3 );
			}
		}

		if( $ensure_utf8_encoding ){

			// Check if UTF8-encoding
			if( utf8_encode( utf8_decode( $text ) ) != $text ){
				$text = mb_convert_encoding( $text, 'utf-8', 'utf-8' );
			}
		}

		if( $ensure_quotes_are_properly_displayed ){
			$text = str_replace('&quot;', '"', $text);
		}

		if( $decode_html_entities ){
			$text = html_entity_decode( $text );
		}

		/**
		 * Other things to try
		 * - the chr-function: https://stackoverflow.com/a/20845642/1766219
		 * - stripslashes (THIS ONE BROKE MY JSON DECODING, AFTER IT STARTED WORKING, THOUGH): https://stackoverflow.com/a/28540745/1766219
		 * - This (improved?) JSON-decoder didn't help me, but it sure looks fancy: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43694325/1766219
		 */
		
	}
	return $text;
}

// Example use
$some_text = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed in turpis dui. Maecenas venenatis venenatis facilisis. Quisque dictum, diam consequat mollis hendraerit, orci tellus aliquet nisl, ut molestie leo augue at est. In vitae vehicula lectus. Curabitur ac varius ligula. Pellentesque orci urdna.';
$some_text = decontaminate_text( $some_text );