note 46313 added to function.serialize

In my experience of the (far and few in between) times when it is necessary to store large (megabytes) amounts of data in a php-readable ascii file format, using var_export() and require() is much faster serialize() and unserialize(file_get_contents()) (I have tested it on classes encapsulating arrays, i.e. <?php class blah { $a = array(megsofstuffhere); $b = array(megsofstuffhere); $c=... }; $data = new blah ?>) (var_export is also more readable and notepadable than serialize!) However, since var_export produces only the rvalue (or uninstantiation), of the data needed, dont forget to cosmetically modify output of var_export( , true): in case of classes, you will need to use "$var = new classname" (and rename a possible stdClass) and in case of arrays, etc, just use "$var = ".var_export(). The file being var_export()ed to and require()ed must also be encapculated in "<?php ?>" when written to (or else its just dumped to browser/stdout as a textfile). Hope this helps :) --Phil P.S. (in cases of small amounts of data, serialize is better, especially for cross-URL data transport using <?php base64_encode(gzdeflate(serialize()))?>) ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+46313 Delete -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+46313&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+46313&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php