Writing array to a file [closed] - php

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In the program below
$array[name1][0] = 'name';
$array[name1][1] = '11';
$array[name2][0] = 'name2';
$array[name2][1] = '11';
$fileName = "file.php"
$fp = fopen($fileName,'w');
$msg = $array;
fwrite($fp,$msg);
fclose($fp);
In this file "file.php", i want to write an array...such tha its read like
<?
$array[name1][0] = 'name';
$array[name1][1] = '11';
$array[name2][0] = 'name2';
$array[name2][1] = '11';
but it's not working.

Answer 1

Use json_encode or serialize to get a storable (and compact) representation of your data structure, then json_decode or unserialize to get it back.

Answer 2

The var_export function does just that:
fprintf($fp, '<?php $array = %s;', var_export($array, true));
It generates valid PHP code and you can include the file after that:
include "file.php";
Note that you can return from a PHP file, so this would work too:
fprintf($fp, '<?php return %s;', var_export($array, true));
And then:
$array = include "file.php";
Alternatives to generating PHP code are json_encode/json_decode, or serialize/unserialize.

Answer 3

You can do it like this:
fwrite($fp,print_r($msg,true));

Answer 4

If you want to be able to read the file later and get an PHP array back, then you need to "serialize" the array:
and later
$array = unserialize(file_get_contents("test.data"));
if it should look readable in the file, you var_export($array,1) or print_r($array,1) and store their output.

Answer 5

The closest you're going to get, natively, is by using var_export and writing its return value to the file.
Failing that, you should implement something to build that format from an Array.