accessing data serialised by PHP

AlphaStrike has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: accessing data serialised by PHP by ivancho (Hermit) on Jan 22, 2009 at 04:02 UTC
quoting from the page `*array is unserialized as a hash, becuase PHP only has one array type +"array()", which is analagous to Perl hash's. When you try toseriali +ze a perl array, it's automagically converted into a hash with keys n +umbered from 0 up.` [download] ie, your $h will be a hashref, no matter what you serialized	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: accessing data serialised by PHP by AlphaStrike (Initiate) on Jan 22, 2009 at 05:46 UTC
treating it as a hash seems to work thanks! =) Reality is but a perception of your being.	[reply]
Re: accessing data serialised by PHP by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Jan 22, 2009 at 05:48 UTC
`my $h = unserialize($data); print ref($h), $/;` [download] That'll tell you the reference type. On another note -- I don't know the package you're using and it might be fine but it hits a couple pet peeves of mine (lower case package names are reserved for pragmata and if it's decent, production quality code, it should be on the CPAN). I have used this in a couple of projects: PHP::Serialization. It worked great and it's even got some patches applied since and a new, solid maintainer attached.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: accessing data serialised by PHP by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 22, 2009 at 05:54 UTC
Another option to consider is using a standard data interchange format. Such as JSON or YAML. (Of the two JSON is probably a better choice.)	[reply]
Re: accessing data serialised by PHP by setebos (Beadle) on Jan 22, 2009 at 03:38 UTC
Just try the following (and post the output here): `use Data::Dumper; print Dumper($h);` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: accessing data serialised by PHP by AlphaStrike (Initiate) on Jan 22, 2009 at 05:35 UTC
the output is: $VAR1 = undef; so it does not recognise? the serialised data was originally a multidimentional area in PHP Reality is but a perception of your being.	[reply]
Re^3: accessing data serialised by PHP by AlphaStrike (Initiate) on Jan 22, 2009 at 05:43 UTC
Hmmm I think I shall try serialising basic array. as looping it as a hash seems to have some output... probably better to do that since this is the first time I am doing it... =P thanks! Reality is but a perception of your being.	[reply]