Question

I created a array using PHP

$userarray = array('UserName'=>$username,'UserId'=>$userId,'UserPicURL'=>$userPicURL);

How can I convert this array into a string in PHP and back from string into an array. This is kind of a requirement. Could someone please advice on how this can be acheived.

Answer 1

You can convert any PHP data-type but resources into a string by serializing it:

$string = serialize($array);

And back into it’s original form by unserializing it again:

$array = unserialize($string);

A serialized array is in string form. It can be converted into an array again by unserializing it.

The same does work with json_encode / –_decode for your array as well:

$string = json_encode($array);
$array = json_decode($string);