A Preferred method to store PHP arrays (json_encode or serialize)?\\n

This depends on the requirements in hand.

JSON is quicker in comparison to PHP serialization unless the following conditions are met−

• Deeply nested arrays are stored.
• The objects that are stored need to be unserialized to a proper class.
• The interaction is between old PHP versions that don't support json_decode.

The below line of code can be used to store PHP arrays using json_encode−

json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE)

JSON doesn't store the object's original class anywhere, but it can be restored as class instances belonging to stdClass.

Why use json_encode instead of serializing?

• JSON is much more portable in comparison to serialize.
• The features of __sleep() and __wakeup() can't be leveraged using JSON.
• By default, public properties are serialized with JSON. (If PHP version is >=5.4 JsonSerializable can be implemented to change the behavior).

Example

 Live Demo

<?php
   // Array is declared
   $value = array(
      "name"=>"name_me",
      "email"=>"myemail.com"
   );
   // json_encode() function is used
   $json = json_encode($value);
   // Displaying output
   echo($json);
?>

Output

This will produce the following output−

{"name":"name_me","email":"myemail.com"}