Fetch array from tables within loop

Question

I'm struggling to pull data using PHP from an array stored as LONGTEXT in a MySQL table.

I'm creating a notification script that pulls from two separate tables ('events' and 'bookings'). Amongst other columns, the 'bookings' table is structured like so, with a LONGTEXT array stored in the 'booking_meta' column:

+------+------+------------+------------------------+
| booking_id  | event_id   | booking_meta           |
+------+------+------------+------------------------+
|           1 |        12  |  (example array below) |
|           2 |        12  |                        |
|           3 |        12  |                        |
|           4 |        12  |                        |
|           5 |        13  |                        |
|           6 |        13  |                        |
|           7 |        13  |                        |
+------+------+------------+------------------------+

Example array:

a:1:{s:12:"registration";a:5:{s:10:"user_email";s:14:"[email protected]";s:9:"user_name";s:9:"Full Name";s:10:"first_name";s:4:"Full";s:9:"last_name";s:4:"Name";s:10:"dbem_phone";s:8:"12345678";}}

Essentially, i'd like to pull the 'user_name' and 'dbem_phone' from the array in 'booking_meta' and echo it in a list of all bookings in the next 15 minutes. Everything in the following query works, but i have no idea how to parse this array on top of what's already going on:

$bookingresult = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM events, bookings
WHERE event_start_date='$date' AND event_start_time BETWEEN '$currenttime' and '$currenttime15' AND events.event_id = bookings.event_id");

echo "Bookings for events in the next 15 minutes: <br>";

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($bookingresult)) {
    echo $row['booking_id'] . " " . $row['event_name'];
    $phonedata = mysqli_fetch_array($row['booking_meta']);
    echo $phonedata['phone'];
    echo "<br>";
}

You need to unserialize the output - php.net/manual/en/function.unserialize.php — ggdx
– ggdx, Commented Jul 17, 2014 at 8:05

Elias Van Ootegem · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-17 08:26:19Z

1

The data stored in the booking_meta field looks like a serialized PHP array. An array is passed to serialize to produce the value of booking_meta.
To turn it back into an array, pass the string to unserialize.

In short, and as I said in my comment:

$phonedata = mysqli_fetch_array($row['booking_meta']);
//should be
$phonedata = unserialize($row['booking_meta']);
echo $phonedata['registration']['dbem_phone'];

Try var_dump($phonedata); to get an idea of how the data is actually structured (it's a 2D array).

PS: You are using $row as an associative array, which is fine. But you're fetching the row both as an associative as well as a numerically indexed array. Which is the default behaviour of mysqli_fethc_array, consider switching to mysqli_fetch_assoc

edited Jul 17, 2014 at 8:26

answered Jul 17, 2014 at 8:10

Elias Van Ootegem

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3 Comments

Tom Over a year ago

Thanks Elias - have done. However still nothing being printed when i echo $phonedata['dbem_phone']; - is there anything more i need to do with the array now that it's unserialised? Appreciate the help.

Elias Van Ootegem Over a year ago

@Tom: Updated my answer... basically: it's a multi-dimensional array

Tom Over a year ago

Solved - was reading array wrong. Needed: echo $meta['registration']['dbem_phone']

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