Associative array to JSON or Serialised conversion : PHP

<?php
$customer= [
"name"=>"Tommy Jason",
"age" => 45,
"sex" => "Male",
"location" => "USA"
];
print_r($customer);
echo "Serialized: <br>";
$serializedCustomer =serialize($customer);
echo $serializedCustomer;
echo "<br>";
echo "Unserialized: <br>";
$unserializedCustomer =unserialize($serializedCustomer);
print_r($unserializedCustomer);
echo "<br>";
echo "JSon Encoded<br>";
echo $jsonEncoded = json_encode($customer);
echo "<br>";
echo "Json Decoded --converted to object <br>";
$jsonDecoded= json_decode($jsonEncoded);
print_r($jsonDecoded);
echo "<br>Json Decoded --converted to Array <br>";
$jsonDecoded= json_decode($jsonEncoded,true);
print_r($jsonDecoded);
echo "<br>";

?>

Array ( [name] => Tommy Jason [age] => 45 [sex] => Male [location] => USA ) Serialized:
a:4:{s:4:"name";s:11:"Tommy Jason";s:3:"age";i:45;s:3:"sex";s:4:"Male";s:8:"location";s:3:"USA";}
Unserialized:
Array ( [name] => Tommy Jason [age] => 45 [sex] => Male [location] => USA )
JSon Encoded
{"name":"Tommy Jason","age":45,"sex":"Male","location":"USA"}
Json Decoded --converted to object
stdClass Object ( [name] => Tommy Jason [age] => 45 [sex] => Male [location] => USA )
Json Decoded --converted to Array
Array ( [name] => Tommy Jason [age] => 45 [sex] => Male [location] => USA )