How to convert file data to array in PHP?

Question

PHP

There is a text file with the following content:

Имя * значение
Имя * значение
...

As far as I understood, the command $file = file('list-of-districts.txt'); reads and forms an array like:

[0] => Имя * значение,
[1] => Имя * значение,
...

But how to quickly, correctly and least costly form an array of this type from a file?

'Имя' => 'Значение',
'Имя' => 'Значение',
...

PS
Or maybe a less resource-intensive and faster option is JSON?

Answer 1

fgetcsv with ' * ' delimiter Looping through rows
For
each row you get an array with two elements
And you use the first element as a key, the second as a value for a new array

Answer 2

list-of-districts.txt how often does it change?
if mtime(list-of-districts.txt) > mtime(list-of-districts.json) then
how can you make a json version of the file
if you want
to display the necessary response headers for json
output quickly via fpassthru($fp);