php - Need help with format of nested array in MySQL

I build a plugin, that is able to run through a CSV file and parse the variables into custom fields of a custom post.

In my custom post type, I build a meta box with repeatable custom fields. The format, that this meta box fetch the data from MySQL is this:

a:3:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 1";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.635656,12.506767";}i:1;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 2";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.625668,12.502392";}i:2;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 3";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.618781,12.519143";}}

Following code runs through a x amount of coordinate variables of the CSV file:

            // Variables used for getting coordinates
            $a = 0;
            $b = 0; 
            $c = 0; 

            //Variables used for coordinate titles
            $ctitle = 0; 

            // Array containing all imported coordinate sets
            $points = array();

            //$coordinate;
            $Xcoordinate;
            $Ycoordinate; 
            $XYcoordinate;

            while (!empty($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c])) {

                // Instantiating array that contain a single set of point data
                $point = array();

                $newctexttitle = 'Title ' . $ctitle;

                array_push($point,"title");
                array_push($point,$newctexttitle);
                array_push($point,"point");
                echo "</br>";

                echo "Coordinate title is: " . $ctitle;
                echo "</br>";

                if ($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c]){

                    echo "The imported X coordinate is: " . $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];
                    echo "</br>";

                    $Xcoordinate = $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];

                    // Increase c variable by one
                    $c++;

                    echo "C is now: " . $c;
                    echo "</br>";
                }

                if ($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c]){

                    echo "The imported Y coordinate is: " . $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];
                    echo "</br>";

                    $Ycoordinate = $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];

                    // Decrease c variable by one
                    $c--;

                    echo "C is now: " . $c;
                    echo "</br>";
                }

                // Increase b variable by one
                $b++;

                echo "B is now: " . $b;
                echo "</br>";

                // Increase title variable by one
                $ctitle++;

                $XYcoordinate = $Xcoordinate . ", " . $Ycoordinate;

                array_push($point,$XYcoordinate);

                array_push($points,$point);

                // Empty out array for the specific point
                unset($point);
            }

            update_post_meta($post["id"], 'points', $points);

Problem is, that the post meta is stored in following format:

a:3:{i:0;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 0";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:19:"8.228271, 56.094402";}i:1;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 1";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:19:"8.216593, 56.082355";}i:2;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 2";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:18:"8.219391, 56.08139";}}

Etc. notice the "i:0","i:1", "i:2" and so on, of every every variable inside the nested array.

What do I need to do different, in order store the data in the same format, as in the example above?

I build a plugin, that is able to run through a CSV file and parse the variables into custom fields of a custom post.

In my custom post type, I build a meta box with repeatable custom fields. The format, that this meta box fetch the data from MySQL is this:

a:3:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 1";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.635656,12.506767";}i:1;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 2";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.625668,12.502392";}i:2;a:2:{s:5:"title";s:7:"Title 3";s:5:"point";s:19:"55.618781,12.519143";}}

Following code runs through a x amount of coordinate variables of the CSV file:

            // Variables used for getting coordinates
            $a = 0;
            $b = 0; 
            $c = 0; 

            //Variables used for coordinate titles
            $ctitle = 0; 

            // Array containing all imported coordinate sets
            $points = array();

            //$coordinate;
            $Xcoordinate;
            $Ycoordinate; 
            $XYcoordinate;

            while (!empty($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c])) {

                // Instantiating array that contain a single set of point data
                $point = array();

                $newctexttitle = 'Title ' . $ctitle;

                array_push($point,"title");
                array_push($point,$newctexttitle);
                array_push($point,"point");
                echo "</br>";

                echo "Coordinate title is: " . $ctitle;
                echo "</br>";

                if ($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c]){

                    echo "The imported X coordinate is: " . $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];
                    echo "</br>";

                    $Xcoordinate = $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];

                    // Increase c variable by one
                    $c++;

                    echo "C is now: " . $c;
                    echo "</br>";
                }

                if ($post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c]){

                    echo "The imported Y coordinate is: " . $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];
                    echo "</br>";

                    $Ycoordinate = $post["geometry/coordinates/" . $a . "/" . $b . "/" . $c];

                    // Decrease c variable by one
                    $c--;

                    echo "C is now: " . $c;
                    echo "</br>";
                }

                // Increase b variable by one
                $b++;

                echo "B is now: " . $b;
                echo "</br>";

                // Increase title variable by one
                $ctitle++;

                $XYcoordinate = $Xcoordinate . ", " . $Ycoordinate;

                array_push($point,$XYcoordinate);

                array_push($points,$point);

                // Empty out array for the specific point
                unset($point);
            }

            update_post_meta($post["id"], 'points', $points);

Problem is, that the post meta is stored in following format:

a:3:{i:0;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 0";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:19:"8.228271, 56.094402";}i:1;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 1";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:19:"8.216593, 56.082355";}i:2;a:4:{i:0;s:5:"title";i:1;s:7:"Title 2";i:2;s:5:"point";i:3;s:18:"8.219391, 56.08139";}}

Etc. notice the "i:0","i:1", "i:2" and so on, of every every variable inside the nested array.

What do I need to do different, in order store the data in the same format, as in the example above?

• php
• plugin-development
• mysql

Share Improve this question asked Feb 13, 2019 at 22:05 DouglessDougless 7511 silver badge88 bronze badges 3

• This is how WordPress saves arrays in the database. How are you fetching the data? – czerspalace Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 0:00
• It should also be possible to store the array the same way, as the example above. The example i display, is also fetched from phpmyadmin. The example comes from a custom post, that I manually typed data intot he repeatable custom field. I simply just don't know how i save my automatically imported data in MySQL, the same way – Dougless Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 10:04
• How are you creating the repeatable custom fields? – czerspalace Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 20:41

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

In order to figure the issue out, I ran unserialize on both data strings and saw that the top example saved as an associative array like:

 [title] => Title 1
 [point] => 55.635656,12.506767

and the second array was flat like:

[0] => title
[1] => Title 0
[2] => point
[3] => 8.228271, 56.094402

In order to have the imported example match the repeatable box, you need to replace

array_push($point,"title");
array_push($point,$newctexttitle);
array_push($point,"point");

with

$point['title'] = $newctexttitle;

and replace

 array_push($point,$XYcoordinate);

with

$point['point'] = $XYcoordinate;