Convert an Array to String and back

Anon

hello everyone!
i need your help. i want to convert an arry in an string and then back to an array.

i think this must be possible, but how?!

if the arry is something like this:

$myvar[0]="value"
$myvar[1][0]="value"
$myvar[1][1]="value"
$myvar[2]="value"

i want to get a string that contains the value and the keys of the array.
so, something like this:

$str = "0=value;1:0=value;1-1=value;2=value;"

okay... and this at an array which can have n dimensions!
is it possible?! ..i hope so.

thanks for your help!

mathias l.

Anon

Use a for loop to create the string and explode() or split() to get an array back.

Anon

function is_array

is_array (myvar[$i])
returns true when $i = 1 (and you can work with $myvar [$i][$j] in a loop) ;
false when $i = 0 or 2

Anon

Easiest:

<?PHP
print_r( $complex_array );
$string = serialize( $complex_array );

echo "<pre>$string</pre>";

$original_array = unserialize( $string );
print_r( $original_array );
?>

--Robert

Anon

PHP has a set of functions for you
serialize()
unserialize()

smarlowe

If you wanna save these things in a text field in a database or a text file, use serialize/unserialize. If you want to put a tab between each array element and print it out on paper in columns or import it into a database, use implode/explode/split.

Do NOT write a for next loop, as was suggested, except maybe for prototyping, as that is MUCH slower than either of the other two methods mentioned here, and offers little benefit unless you need to process each element differently for some reason.

Anon

use explode()

to make your string with "string is string" an array with

array[0] = "string"
array[1] = "is"
array[2] = "string"

(exploded by " ")

split() does the same..

use implode to do the reverse of the above.. (make an array became a string)

serialize() and unserialize() may also help you a bit with that..

Anon

oh!
thank u very, very much!!! 🙂

php is so cool...