PHP two Dimensional array in to file

Question

Can you please tell me how I can save a two dimensional array in to a text file

if I have an array with unknown number of elements in its index value:

$two_darray[unknown][unknown];

is encoding it to a JSON an option? – null Jul 22 '13 at 03:26 — null, Jul 22 '13 at 03:26

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 22 '13 at 03:26

4

You simply need to serialize this array. You can wrap it in serialize() and output this to a file. You can then use unserialize() later to decode it.

For portability, I recommend using JSON instead, with json_encode()/json_decode().

file_put_contents('someFile.json', json_encode($yourArray));

answered Jul 22 '13 at 03:26

Brad

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@Orangepill, Excellent point. One other thing I forgot to mention that might influence the decision... if you need native PHP types, you will need PHP's serialization. – Brad Jul 22 '13 at 03:30
1

and for non-native classes make sure you have definitions included or an autoloader in play prior to calling unserialize or you will end up with a bunch of incomplete class objects. – Orangepill Jul 22 '13 at 03:32

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

Actually, @Brad's and @Hilmi's answers are correct, but I'm not sure using only JSON is a good advice.

You can choose

JSON

write: file_put_contents('someFile.json', json_encode($two_darray));

read: $two_darray = json_decode(file_get_contents('someFile.txt'));

XML

Look this answer

Serialized data

write: file_put_contents('someFile.txt', serialize($two_darray));

read: $two_darray = unserialize(file_get_contents('someFile.txt'));

CSV (to use with MS Excel or some DB)

$handler = fopen('someFile.csv', 'w+');
foreach ($two_darray as $one_darray) {
    fputcsv($handler, $one_darray);
}

read it with fgetcsv

and even SQLite

$db = new SQLiteDatabase('someFile.sqlite');
foreach ($two_darray as $one_darray) {
    $db->query("INSERT INTO `MyTable` VALUES (".implode(',', $one_darray).")");
}

read: $two_darray = $db->sqlite_array_query("SELECT * FROM MyTable");

EDIT Binary (for .zip or .tar.gz)

Try pack()

thats a nice explanation. Can you please show us how you read the value back in to an array using JSON and Serialized methods — Justin k, Jul 22 '13 at 04:17

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 22 '13 at 03:27

0

You can serialize the array to a string and save it into the file, and when ever you want that array just by unserializing the file's content you'll have the array back

answered Jul 22 '13 at 03:27

Hilmi

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 22 '13 at 03:39

<?php
$arr = array( array('aa', 'aa'), array('bb','bb') );
file_put_contents('/tmp/test',serialize($arr));
var_dump(unserialize(file_get_contents('/tmp/test')));
?>

You can also use json_encode/json_decode instead of serialize/deserialize as suggested by @Brad above

PHP two Dimensional array in to file

4 Answers4