suppose we have a mysql table "table" with fields "user" "siblings" and we want to store this family info for every user.
is it possible to do this:
$user=35;
$sibs=array("george","christina");
mysql_query("insert into table (user,siblings) values ('$user','$sibs')");
so that field "siblings" contains an array?
You want to use PHP's serialize() function for this. To reverse the process, use unserialize()
Snippit from PHP.net:
<?php
// $session_data contains a multi-dimensional array with session
// information for the current user. We use serialize() to store
// it in a database at the end of the request.
$conn = odbc_connect("webdb", "php", "chicken");
$stmt = odbc_prepare($conn,
"UPDATE sessions SET data = ? WHERE id = ?");
$sqldata = array (serialize($session_data), $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']);
if (!odbc_execute($stmt, $sqldata)) {
$stmt = odbc_prepare($conn,
"INSERT INTO sessions (id, data) VALUES(?, ?)");
if (!odbc_execute($stmt, $sqldata)) {
/* Something went wrong.. */
}
}
?>
To build on @David Houde's answer from the post he refered to also use compression to save space (if useful to you):
<?php
mySerialize( $obj ) {
return base64_encode(gzcompress(serialize($obj)));
}
myUnserialize( $txt ) {
return unserialize(gzuncompress(base64_decode($txt)));
}
?>
You can use serialize https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php
But it's really bad practice.
serialize is bad practice?
You can use implode() to add a divider between values. For example, you can use the pipe "|"
e.g.
$user=35;
$sibs=array("george","christina");
$sibs1 = ''.implode('|',$sibs).'|';
mysql_query("insert into table (user,siblings) values ('$user','$sibs1')");
When extracting information from the database use LIKE '%|$var|%' in your query to extaract the exact value. e.g. |Christina|
Yes, you can serialize() the array prior to inserting it, or implode() it with some kind of a separator of your choice for this, but I would recommend you just insert separate rows for each user->sibling relationship.
