Storing & Retrieving PHP Arrays in MySQL

[likwuid_ice]

I'm working on my school's website, and building a backend for the teachers to use. Part of the system is that each page has links that the teachers set. Currently I store the links in a table for each page... example -- the superintendent's links are stored in the table "superintendent_links" and the high school links are stored in "high_links."

This system works, but is making the Database slow and sloppy, with there being over 100 tables used just for the links. What I'd like to do is store all links from all areas in a single 2 column table, one column as teh area name and the other holding an array of the links. I've tinkered with this, and scoured the web for ways to store PHP arrays inside a cell of a MySQL database, but can't find any info on it.

How do I store PHP arrays inside a MySQL cell?

[Lars_Berg]

How do I store PHP arrays inside a MySQL cell?

Short answer. You don't.

Store each link as a separate record. You can add an integer column to the table and add a ordinal number to ensure uniqueness.