PHP Array - Odd data when saving to MySQL

Question

I have a PHP array that I am saving to a MySQL Database:

 $q35list = serialize($_POST["q35list"]);

Using mysqli_prepare I am saving successfully to the database.

What is odd is that I have a mix of data being stored:

s:0:""; - fine as user has not selected anything.

s:55:"Set[]=6&Set[]=4&Set[]=3&Set[]=7&Set[]=2&Set[]=5&Set[]=1"; - fine as user has selected options and this appears correctly saved.

But, I am getting a few odd ones, that I can neither replicate or understand how/what/why this is being saved:

s:4:"s:4:"; s:5:"s:55:"; s:4:"s:8:";

Has anyone come across this/ know what this might be and would be kind enough to provide an explanation?

Looks like data that has been serialized twice. "s:55:", as a string, is five characters long, and so becomes s:5:"s:55:";. Verify your serializing workflow. — LSerni
– LSerni, Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 9:54

steven · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-02 09:57:26Z

2

its hard to say what happend here but it looks like a double serialisation with errors.

The most common way to avoid problems with serialisation is to base64 encode after serialisation before save to db:

//serialize
$string = base64_encode(serialize($array));

//unserialize
$array = unserialize(base64_decode($string));

answered Jul 2, 2013 at 9:57

steven

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1 Comment

Homer_J Over a year ago

steven - thanks for this - I guess what I find odd is that I'm only serializing the numbers 1234567 as you can see, not text or long text etc. Really appreciate the heads up on using base64 to encode/ decode. Will try it!

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