Convert a php string to array php from a "JSONish" format - php

Question

Is there any way besides for explode to convert a php string that looks like: "[2,0,[]]" into an array?
My array output should be like:
array(2,0,array())
And "[2,0,[1,2,3,4]]" this sting should be:
array(2,0,array(1,2,3,4))
I do not want to use explode because it just seems like to much code for a very simple task. in javascript it is a one liner:
JSON.parse('[2,0,[1,2,3,4]]');

Answer 1

Your input looks like a JSON string, which can be converted with json_decode() function :
json_decode("[2,0,[]]", true);
/*
Array (
0 => 2,
1 => 0,
2 =>
Array (
),
)
*/

Answer 2

As specified by Tareq Mahmood json_decode would work but in case you want to do it from scratch:
<?php
$string = "[2,0,[1,2,3,4,]]";
$i = 0;
$array = array();
$handlerCount = 0;
$arrayTmp = array();
$countArr2=0;
while(isset($string[$i])){
switch($string[$i]){
case ",":
break;
case "[":
$handlerCount++;
break;
case "]":
$handlerCount--;
break;
default:
if($handlerCount == 1){
$array[$i] = (int)$string[$i];
}else{
$arrayTmp[$countArr2] = (int)$string[$i];
$countArr2++;
}
}
$i++;
}
array_push($array,$arrayTmp);
var_dump($array);
?>
[Proof of concept]
array(3) {
[1]=>
int(2)
[3]=>
int(0)
[4]=>
array(4) {
[0]=>
int(1)
[1]=>
int(2)
[2]=>
int(3)
[3]=>
int(4)
}
}