How can I create a PHP array from this serialized string?

Question

I have a string which looks like this:

id_company=57&name=&address=&zip=&place=&phone=&mobile=&email=&birthdate=&birthplace=&bsn=&driver_expires=&role=&date_started=&contract=Tijdelijk&id_type=Paspoort&id_number=&id_expires=

Above example is empty for the most part (except id_company).

I serialize my form in jquery like this:

var $serialized = $form.serialize();

And in my php I do this:

$jsonemployee = unserialize($_POST['serialized']);

After that I try to print it because I expect an array:

echo '<pre>';
print_r($jsonemployee);
echo '</pre>';

But this shows me nothing.

I am 100% sure all data is passed, in my networktab I see the string being posted and if I just echo the string, it shows the string.

How can I create a PHP array from that string?

First thing to do is var_dump($_POST['serialized']). If you don't see anything then that data was never sent to the server. — John Conde
– John Conde, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 12:58
@JohnConde I see the string when I var_dump it. string(185) "id_company=57&name=&address=&zip=&place=&phone=&mobile=&email=&birthdate=&birthplace=&bsn=&driver_expires=&role=&date_started=&contract=Tijdelijk&id_type=Paspoort&id_number=&id_expires=" — twan
– twan, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 12:59
Do you know how to explode on for example '&'?. This will create an array for you. — Ronnie Oosting
– Ronnie Oosting, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 13:01
@RonnieOosting Yes but shouldn't there be a PHP function that does all this for me? — twan
– twan, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 13:01

deceze · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 13:02:50Z

5

unserialize is not for unserialising that format, it's the counterpart to serialize, which produces a very different result. To parse a URL-encoded string in PHP, use parse_str.

parse_str($_POST['serialized'], $result);
var_dump($result);

Of course, it's somewhat bizarre that you're sending a URL encoded string as $_POST['serialized']… You should send it as the one and only request body, and PHP will automatically parse it into $_POST and you won't have to do any of this.

edited Sep 19, 2018 at 13:02

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 13:00

deceze♦

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5 Comments

twan Over a year ago

Great! This is what I needed, thank you. - I'll accept in 9 minutes.

jeroen Over a year ago

@twan Note that jQuery's serialize() and php's serialize() are completely unrelated and produce results that are nowhere near similar.

twan Over a year ago

Yeah makes sense now, I thought they did the same thing @jeroen

Udara Herath Over a year ago

This will not work well if any text has & symbol, is there anyone got the same issue ?

deceze Over a year ago

@Udara Post your own question with details. & needs to be correctly encoded in the first place, as it has a special meaning in URL-encoded strings.

Muhammed Sami · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 13:03:02Z

-1

you just need to convert this string into an array by doing :

$myArray = explode("&",$_POST['serialized']);

i think that will work for you.

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 13:03

Muhammed Sami

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