PHP - how does serialize work? I need to serialize an array manually

Question

I'm using CSV Import Suite for WooCommerce. One of the columns has to be a serialized array.

I'm trying to find out, how the serialize function in PHP works, as I need to recreate that in Excel. I have a simple array:

array(0 => 'text', 2 => 'some other text')

which gives me:

a:2:{i:0;s:4:"text";i:2;s:15:"some other text";}

What's the logic of how the serialized string is built?

There's probably a better solution here. Why do you need to recreate it in Excel? — bcmcfc
– bcmcfc, Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 9:42

bcmcfc · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-16 09:39:53Z

2

To break down your example:

a:2:{i:0;s:4:"text";i:2;s:15:"some other text";}

array with 2 items
key is an integer: 0, with a string value of length 4, containing 'text'.
key is an integer: 2, with a string value of length 15, containing 'some other text'

Whether you should actually attempt this is another thing though. There's probably a better solution to the root problem.

answered Nov 16, 2014 at 9:39

bcmcfc

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Marcin Orlowski · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-16 09:39:28Z

0

It looks like this is something like a:2 where a stands for array, 2 is element count. Then you got i (integer), its value, ; as separator. then another element, s (string), its length and the value.

answered Nov 16, 2014 at 9:39

Marcin Orlowski

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