php object to array function to be used before json encoding of a class

object_to_array.php

function object_to_array($object, $utf_encode=FALSE)
{
    if(is_array($object) || is_object($object))
    {
        $array = array();
        foreach($object as $key => $value)
        {
            $value = object_to_array($value, $utf_encode);
            if($utf_encode && is_string($value)){
                $value = utf8_encode($value);
            }
            $array[$key] = $value;
        }
        return $array;
    }
    return $object;
}