String to Object conversion

Question

I'm looping through a database table which holds some data related to external API responses.

Someone was saving the responses as text, like so:

object(stdClass)#5 (1) {
  ["CreateProspectResult"]=>
  object(stdClass)#6 (3) {
    ["State"]=>
    string(7) "Success"
    ["ErrorMessage"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["ReturnValue"]=>
    object(stdClass)#7 (1) {
      ["ProspectID"]=>
      int(304)
    }
  }
}

I'm guessing the original developer was doing a var_dump() with the <pre> tags, and saved the response literally.

When I loop through the Table results, I'm want to convert the string back into an Object, so I can parse it. Which I'm failing at, badly.

Here's what I've attempted:

<?php

$string = '
object(stdClass)#5 (1) {
  ["CreateProspectResult"]=>
  object(stdClass)#6 (3) {
    ["State"]=>
    string(7) "Success"
    ["ErrorMessage"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["ReturnValue"]=>
    object(stdClass)#7 (1) {
      ["ProspectID"]=>
      int(304)
    }
  }
}
';

$xmlObj = simplexml_load_string($string);
echo $xmlObj->CreateProspectResult->State;
?>

PHP isn't enjoying my attempts, and giving me non-object-related errors back.

Is it possible to take such a string and convert it back into an Object?

Update your question with an example of what the API returns or do you not have access to the API directly. Aside from that I don't think there is any ready to go converter from string to stdClass. — Prix, Mar 28 '14 at 01:15
"Someone was saving the responses as text, like so:" --- looooooooool — zerkms, Mar 28 '14 at 01:16
I don't have access to the API directly, unfortunately. I'm told the response was what is posted above. — coffeemonitor, Mar 28 '14 at 01:18

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

I'm not 100% sure if this works for object (seems to be), but this seems to cover your question.

function unvar_dump($str) {
    if (strpos($str, "\n") === false) {
        //Add new lines:
        $regex = array(
            '#(\\[.*?\\]=>)#',
            '#(string\\(|int\\(|float\\(|array\\(|NULL|object\\(|})#',
        );
        $str = preg_replace($regex, "\n\\1", $str);
        $str = trim($str);
    }
    $regex = array(
        '#^\\040*NULL\\040*$#m',
        '#^\\s*array\\((.*?)\\)\\s*{\\s*$#m',
        '#^\\s*string\\((.*?)\\)\\s*(.*?)$#m',
        '#^\\s*int\\((.*?)\\)\\s*$#m',
        '#^\\s*float\\((.*?)\\)\\s*$#m',
        '#^\\s*\[(\\d+)\\]\\s*=>\\s*$#m',
        '#\\s*?\\r?\\n\\s*#m',
    );
    $replace = array(
        'N',
        'a:\\1:{',
        's:\\1:\\2',
        'i:\\1',
        'd:\\1',
        'i:\\1',
        ';'
    );
    $serialized = preg_replace($regex, $replace, $str);
    $func = create_function(
        '$match', 
        'return "s:".strlen($match[1]).":\\"".$match[1]."\\"";'
    );
    $serialized = preg_replace_callback(
        '#\\s*\\["(.*?)"\\]\\s*=>#', 
        $func,
        $serialized
    );
    $func = create_function(
        '$match', 
        'return "O:".strlen($match[1]).":\\"".$match[1]."\\":".$match[2].":{";'
    );
    $serialized = preg_replace_callback(
        '#object\\((.*?)\\).*?\\((\\d+)\\)\\s*{\\s*;#', 
        $func, 
        $serialized
    );
    $serialized = preg_replace(
        array('#};#', '#{;#'), 
        array('}', '{'), 
        $serialized
    );

    return unserialize($serialized);
}

Source: Convert var_dump of array back to array variable

String to Object conversion

1 Answers1