- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- json_decode: documentation ( source)
<?php
$json = '{[{"id":"3","value":"Alaska","abbrev":"AK"},{"id":"4","value":"Alabama","abbrev":"AL"},{"id":"9","value":"California","abbrev":"CA"},{"id":"29","value":"Marshall Islands","abbrev":"MH"},{"id":"49","value":"Palau","abbrev":"PW"}]}';
var_dump(json_decode($json));