What is DC2Type array datatype in mysql

Question

I have been working with Symfony2 and doctrine2 recently and have realized a peculiar datatype called DC2Type:array that certain Symfony2 Roles get saved as. To me it just looks like a serialized PHP array where a signifies the total number of elements, i is the array index.

The value looks like this:

a:15:{i:0;s:32:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_EDIT";i:1;s:32:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_LIST";i:2;s:34:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_CREATE";i:3;s:32:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_VIEW";i:4;s:34:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_DELETE";i:5;s:36:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_OPERATOR";i:6;s:34:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_MASTER";i:7;s:33:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_EDIT";i:8;s:33:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_LIST";i:9;s:35:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_CREATE";i:10;s:33:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_VIEW";i:11;s:35:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_DELETE";i:12;s:37:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_OPERATOR";i:13;s:35:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_GROUP_MASTER";i:14;s:10:"ROLE_ADMIN";}

I want to know what this datatype is?

And what do the following identifier signifies:

s:

I have searched the internet but haven't got any useful data.

I also bumped upon this cookbook entry - http://readthedocs.org/docs/doctrine-orm/en/2.0.x/cookbook/mysql-enums.html but didn't figure out the origin.

Andy · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-19 08:51:35Z

44

This is not a data type. You might have noticed that the column type is LONGTEXT. DC2Type:array is a comment of the field.

Doctrine uses the field's comment as column's metadata storage place. Since Mysql does not allow you to store an array, Doctrine use DC2Type:array as comment in order to know how to unserialize the content.

Take a look at the link below.

https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/issues/1614

From the link you mentioned, you can see that the comment DC2Type:enumvisibility indicates that the content of the field is a flag, indicating that the record is visible or not. It is not a new data type at all. It should be considered an helper strategy in the database level. For Doctrine, it's a custom data type.

edited Sep 19, 2017 at 8:51

Andy

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answered May 21, 2012 at 17:29

P. R. Ribeiro

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Comments

Strategist · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-05 13:11:34Z

8

This is simply a string. Its format is a serialized PHP array. The s: refers to the size or length of each item value in the array.

e.g. s:32:"ROLE_SONATA_USER_ADMIN_USER_EDIT"

If you count the characters in the ROLE string, there are 32.

Hope this helps.

edited Mar 5, 2015 at 13:11

answered Mar 5, 2015 at 12:55

Strategist

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1 Comment

Aliance Over a year ago

s: refers to type – string. i for integer and so one. The patter is type:(length:)value

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