Question

I ask serialization and unserialization by PHP script. Only sometimes I edit the array manually (in database.txt).

Answer 1

You could export the array as a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string and later decode it again.

You can do this with the functions json_encode and json_decode, respectively.

$a = array(
  'a' => 1,
  'b' => 2,
  'c' => array(1,2,3));
file_put_contents('database.txt', json_encode($a));
// encoded: {a:1,b:2,c:[1,2,3]}

// ---
$a = json_decode(file_get_contents('database.txt'), TRUE);
// specify TRUE to parse objects as assoc. arrays ---^

Note, that all this might not be the best idea (I’m a bit worried about the filename you chose – if you want to have a DB, then use a DB! (e.g. sqlite)).