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Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2024 12:56:22 +0100
Message-ID: <CAPzBOBMePPts9YgBbm+w9qssSab8GD55UFabJ3a92DufLw8SOw@mail.gmail.com>
To: =?UTF-8?Q?Micha=C5=82_Marcin_Brzuchalski?= <michal.brzuchalski@gmail.com>
Cc: Sanford Whiteman <figureonecpr@gmail.com>, PHP Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Why are serialized strings wrapped in double quotes? (s:<len>:"<string>")
From: landers.robert@gmail.com (Robert Landers)

On Fri, Feb 9, 2024 at 8:13=E2=80=AFAM Micha=C5=82 Marcin Brzuchalski
<michal.brzuchalski@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> czw., 8 lut 2024 o 20:10 Sanford Whiteman <figureonecpr@gmail.com>
> napisa=C5=82(a):
>
> > Hi Micha=C5=82,
> >
> > Thursday, February 8, 2024, 2:58:52 AM, you wrote:
> > ...
> > >O3:Foo:5{s4:date;O17:DateTimeImmutable:3{s4:date;s26:2024-02-08
> >
> > >08:41:10.009742;s13:timezone_type;i:3;s8:timezone;s16:Europe/Amsterdam=
}s6:*foo;s11:Foo
> > >bar
> >
> > >baz;s8:Foobar;i:123456789;s3:tbl;a4{i:0;i:123;i:1;b:1;i:2;d:1.1;i:3;s3=
:baz}s8:*color;E12:Color:Yellow}
> > >
> > >This is still readable by humans and keep the size/length in all place=
s
> > >where needed.
> >
> > Amazing. To my eyes it's more readable too.
> >
>
> Just wondering, while null is encoded just as N the booleans are encoded
> with b:0 or b:1
> I can imagine this could also be just T and F
>
>
> > Here's another one: leading numeral *implies* Integer 'i' (so only
> > 'd', 'b' and 's<len>' are necessary). Or maybe that goes too far.
>
>
> I was there in the very first link you can spot it but also believe this
> goes too far.
>
> All above already goes far beyond what you initially asked and I know tha=
t.
> I just like to share what can find.
>
> Cheers,
> Micha=C5=82 Marcin Brzuchalski

If I recall correctly, there is also a `\0` (null character) hiding in
the serialized string as well. It's incredibly annoying when
copy/pasting as sometimes it gets stripped out. It might be worth
removing as well.

Robert Landers
Software Engineer
Utrecht NL