Why do php arrays need to be serialized?

When we want to store an array value into the database, we can serialize the array and then store the serialized value in the database. In fact, PHP serialized arrays convert complex array data types into strings to facilitate array storage operations.

To serialize and deserialize PHP arrays, two functions are mainly used, serialize and unserialize.

1. PHP array serialization: serialize

 $arr = array('PHP','Java','Python','C'); 
 $result = serialize($arr); 
echo $result;

Run result:

a: Indicates the overall data type, here is array;

4 in a:4: indicates the number of array elements;

i: indicates int, integer type;

0: Indicates the subscript of the array element;

s: Indicates string, that is, the type of the array value;

s: 3 in 3: Indicates the length of the array value.

ps: serialize() returns a string. This string contains a byte stream representing value and can be stored anywhere. This facilitates storing or passing PHP values ​​without losing their type and structure.

2. PHP deserialization: unserialize

$arr = array('PHP','Java','Python','C');
 $result = serialize($arr);
 var_dump(unserialize($result));

Result:

ps: unserialize() operates on a single serialized variable and converts it back to a PHP value.

Recommended tutorial: PHP video tutorial

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