learning mySQL isn't too hard; & it's a very valuable skill.
if i understand your post about text arrays, i think maybe you could use a basic relational database idea to solve your problem: in relational databases like mySQL, each row in a table is uniquely identified by its primary key. like this:
id custname
1 joe
2 sam
3 mary
the ids have no meaning apart from their role as unique identifiers. any row can be picked out by program logic using the primary key.
similarly, it seems like you need a way to differentiate each array so that your admin prog changes only one array at a time. that is, you need a "key" for each array that will uniquely identify that array.
so, maybe you can add an identifying element to your array. e.g., try a timestamp or timestamp + random number.
