What does an at sign (@) mean in a serialized array?

Question

In my PHP endpoint, I have logged a serialized array of POST values, but am unable to access any items within the array. I know the array isn't empty, because I can see the values when I serialize it. Here is the serialized array:

a:1:@s:13:"{"answer":42";s:0:"";}

What does the at sign (@) mean?

Additional information:

If I call end() or reset() on the unserialized array, both return an empty string.

In the javascript application where I make the POST request, I stringify an object and then use that string as the body of the post:

let b = {answer: 42}
...
body: JSON.stringify(b)

I use fetch to make the POST. The content-type header for my POST is 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded', though I'm open to using something else if appropriate. I tried 'text/html; charset=utf-8' as well, but in that case the array is empty.

Why would you serialize a JSON string that you mad into an array? — AbraCadaver, May 17 '18 at 20:17
You have a PHP serialized array with a string of 13 characters containing a JSON-string. — Jørgen, May 17 '18 at 20:17
`application/x-www-form-urlencoded`,.. you might want `application/json` — Keith, May 17 '18 at 20:17
@AbraCadaver -- I serialized the array for debugging purposes, so I could log it. I do not intend to serialize it in my application. — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 20:49
@Jørgen -- Yes, clearly that's so. But how do I access the values in the unserialized array. — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 20:49
@Keith -- If I use 'application/json' as the content-type, I receive no data. — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 20:50
@Quentin, Thanks. It does appear this is a duplicate -- I can now access the values with file_get_contents('php://input'). — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 20:58
My underlying problem is now solved in the answer Quentin flagged, but I still wonder what the @ sign means in a serialized array. — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 21:14
The at (@) sign is for JSON-LD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON-LD -- Also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28999427/fasterxml-jackson-the-json-symbol — arnoldbird, May 17 '18 at 23:35
Actually, in this case, I don't think the @ sign represents use of JSON-LD. I may re-post the question later on. — arnoldbird, May 18 '18 at 12:33

What does an at sign (@) mean in a serialized array?

0 Answers0