string to array conversion using php

Question

I have a string like following...

Array ([product_name] => this is a product [product_desc] => some descripyion [cat_id] => 3)

This is looking like as an array but this is a string. If I use echo then it prints the same result.

$someVariable = "Array ([product_name] => this is a product [product_desc] => some descripyion [cat_id] => 3)";

echo $someVariable;

Result:

Array ([product_name] => this is a product [product_desc] => some descripyion [cat_id] => 3)

I need it to convert to an array so that I can do the following..

echo $someVariable['product_name'];

and get the following result

this is a product

Is there any way to do this ?

Thanks

This is very very hard, if not impossible. Why do you have "arrays" in this format to begin with? You should use a better serialisation format than var_dump. — deceze
– deceze ♦, Commented May 26, 2014 at 10:33
Agree with @deceze, please explain why you have an array in string format? — Zander Rootman
– Zander Rootman, Commented May 26, 2014 at 10:34
what is the need of putting this printed format of array in string. what you are doing actully? — Satish Sharma
– Satish Sharma, Commented May 26, 2014 at 10:35
What about if you run serialize() on the array before you submit the form and then convert it back into an array with unserialize(). — Teaqu
– Teaqu, Commented May 26, 2014 at 11:17

Amal · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-27 03:51:13Z

5

serialize the data:

<input type="hidden" name="data" valaue='<?php print_r(serialize($yourData));?>'>

And then unserialize:

<?php 
    $youralldata = unserialize($_POST['data']);
    print_r($youralldata);
?>

edited May 27, 2014 at 3:51

Amal

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answered May 26, 2014 at 11:33

Bipul Khan

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Comments

Teaqu · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-26 11:07:31Z

2

$someVariable = "Array ([product_name] => this is a product [product_desc] => some descripyion [cat_id] => 3)";

preg_match_all('/\[(.*?)\]/', $someVariable, $keys);
preg_match_all('/=> (.*?) ?[\[|\)]/', $someVariable, $values);

$someVariable = array_combine($keys[1], $values[1]);

This converts the string back into an array.

answered May 26, 2014 at 11:07

Teaqu

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2 Comments

Teaqu Over a year ago

Good point. You would have to validate your input. It's definitely better to avoid having to do this.

deceze Over a year ago

Yes, avoiding this whole situation is the only reasonable answer. var_dump is not suitable to serialise arbitrary values.

noobie-php · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-26 15:45:24Z

0

 function stringToArray($string){
    $pattern = '/\[(.*?)\]|=>\s+[\w\s\d]+/';
    preg_match_all($pattern,$string,$matches);
    $result = array();
    foreach($matches[0] as $i => $match){
        if($i%2 == 0){
                    $key = trim(str_ireplace(array("[","]"),"",$match));
            $value = trim(str_ireplace(array("=>"),"",$matches[0][$i+1]));
            $result[$key] = $value;
        }
    }
    return $result;
}

$someVariable =   "Array ([product_name] => this is a product [product_desc] => some descripyion [cat_id] => 3)";

$someVariable = stringToArray($someVariable);

echo $someVariable['product_name'];

edited May 26, 2014 at 15:45

noobie-php

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answered May 26, 2014 at 11:37

Dastagir

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