- array_merge: documentation ( source)
- json_encode: documentation ( source)
<?php
$source = ["a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3];
echo json_encode(["d" => 4, "b" => 10] + $source) . PHP_EOL;
echo json_encode(array_merge($source, ["d" => 4, "b" => 10])) . PHP_EOL;