title: Why is JSON with curly braces invalid?
body: <p>I'm trying to pass valid JSON to dataTables but any result that uses curly braces in the array is not accepted. </p>
  
  <p>Working JSON Data[demo]: </p>
  
  <pre class="lang-json prettyprint-override"><code>{
    "data":[
  
      [
        "Rhona Davidson",
        "Integration Specialist",
        "Tokyo",
        55,
        "2010/10/14",
        "$327,900"
      ],
      [
        "Colleen Hurst",
        "Javascript Developer",
        "San Francisco",
        39,
        "2009/09/15",
        "$205,500"
      ],
      [
        "Sonya Frost",
        "Software Engineer",
        "Edinburgh",
        23,
        "2008/12/13",
        "$103,600"
      ],
      [
        "Jena Gaines",
        "Office Manager",
        "London",
        30,
        "2008/12/19",
        "$90,560"
      ],
      [
        "Quinn Flynn",
        "Support Lead",
        "Edinburgh",
        22,
        "2013/03/03",
        "$342,000"
      ],
      [
        "Charde Marshall",
        "Regional Director",
        "San Francisco",
        36,
        "2008/10/16",
        "$470,600"
      ],
      [
        "Haley Kennedy",
        "Senior Marketing Designer",
        "London",
        43,
        "2012/12/18",
        "$313,500"
      ],
      [
        "Jenette Caldwell",
        "Development Lead",
        "New York",
        30,
        "2011/09/03",
        "$345,000"
      ],
      [
        "Yuri Berry",
        "Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)",
        "New York",
        40,
        "2009/06/25",
        "$675,000"
      ],
      [
        "Caesar Vance",
        "Pre-Sales Support",
        "New York",
        21,
        "2011/12/12",
        "$106,450"
      ],
      [
        "Doris Wilder",
        "Sales Assistant",
        "Sidney",
        23,
        "2010/09/20",
        "$85,600"
      ],
      [
        "Angelica Ramos",
        "Chief Executive Officer (CEO)",
        "London",
        47,
        "2009/10/09",
        "$1,200,000"
      ],
      [
        "Gavin Joyce",
        "Developer",
        "Edinburgh",
        42,
        "2010/12/22",
        "$92,575"
      ],
      [
        "Jennifer Chang",
        "Regional Director",
        "Singapore",
        28,
        "2010/11/14",
        "$357,650"
      ],
      [
        "Brenden Wagner",
        "Software Engineer",
        "San Francisco",
        28,
        "2011/06/07",
        "$206,850"
      ],
      [
        "Fiona Green",
        "Chief Operating Officer (COO)",
        "San Francisco",
        48,
        "2010/03/11",
        "$850,000"
      ],
      [
        "Shou Itou",
        "Regional Marketing",
        "Tokyo",
        20,
        "2011/08/14",
        "$163,000"
      ],
      [
        "Michelle House",
        "Integration Specialist",
        "Sidney",
        37,
        "2011/06/02",
        "$95,400"
      ],
      [
        "Suki Burks",
        "Developer",
        "London",
        53,
        "2009/10/22",
        "$114,500"
      ],
      [
        "Prescott Bartlett",
        "Technical Author",
        "London",
        27,
        "2011/05/07",
        "$145,000"
      ],
      [
        "Gavin Cortez",
        "Team Leader",
        "San Francisco",
        22,
        "2008/10/26",
        "$235,500"
      ],
      [
        "Martena Mccray",
        "Post-Sales support",
        "Edinburgh",
        46,
        "2011/03/09",
        "$324,050"
      ],
      [
        "Unity Butler",
        "Marketing Designer",
        "San Francisco",
        47,
        "2009/12/09",
        "$85,675"
      ],
      [
        "Howard Hatfield",
        "Office Manager",
        "San Francisco",
        51,
        "2008/12/16",
        "$164,500"
      ],
      [
        "Hope Fuentes",
        "Secretary",
        "San Francisco",
        41,
        "2010/02/12",
        "$109,850"
      ],
      [
        "Vivian Harrell",
        "Financial Controller",
        "San Francisco",
        62,
        "2009/02/14",
        "$452,500"
      ],
      [
        "Timothy Mooney",
        "Office Manager",
        "London",
        37,
        "2008/12/11",
        "$136,200"
      ],
      [
        "Jackson Bradshaw",
        "Director",
        "New York",
        65,
        "2008/09/26",
        "$645,750"
      ],
      [
        "Olivia Liang",
        "Support Engineer",
        "Singapore",
        64,
        "2011/02/03",
        "$234,500"
      ]
    ]
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Failing JSON Data (Demo):</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>{"data":[{"id":"in_1DLk6ZLrfrJRnR7ZLFRmoZAp","amount-paid":15911}]}</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Returns </p>
  
  <pre><code>{"data":[{"id":"in_1DLk6ZLrfrJRnR7ZLFRmoZAp","amount-paid":15911}]}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The demo returns contents from a PHP file. </p>
  
  <pre><code> header("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
   foreach ($api_response['data'] as $customer) {
   $return_array[] = array(
       'id' =&gt; $customer['id'], 'amount-paid' =&gt; $customer['amount_paid']);
   }
  
   $mainArray['data'] = $return_array;
   echo json_encode($mainArray);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any suggestions would be very appreciated.</p>