PHP: How to turn a string that contains an array expression in an actual array?

Question

I have an array of user inputs ($atts) as key=>value pairs. Some of the values could be written as an array expression, such as:

\'setting\' => \'array(50,25)         


        

Answer 1

You can use eval, but I would highly recommend not using it, and instead try to rethink your design on a better way to handle the settings. So for your example instead of storing

'setting' => 'array(50,25)'

Could you do something like

'setting' => array('type'=>'array', 'value'=>'50, 25')

then when you load the settings you can do

switch($type)
case 'array'
  $val = explode(', ', $value)

Or something similar

But like others suggested, I would try to save the settings using serialization