What is the JSON-like data format used by Drupal?

Question

Drupal

What data format is used in Drupal

SELECT cast(`value` as char) FROM drupal.variable
WHERE `name`='language_negotiation_language_url'

added hyphens for readability

a:2:{s:10:"locale-url";a:2:{s:9:"callbacks";
a:3:{s:8:"language";
s:24:"locale_language_from_url";
s:8:"switcher";
s:28:"locale_language_switcher_url";
s:11:"url_rewrite";
s:31:"locale_language_url_rewrite_url";}s:4:"file";
s:19:"includes/locale.inc";}s:19:"locale-url-fallback";
a:2:{s:9:"callbacks";a:1:{s:8:"language";s:28:"locale_language_url_fallback";}
s:4:"file";s:19:"includes/locale.inc";}}

I don't think it would be a problem to parse it yourself, but still, what function would it be?

Answer 1

This is serialization.
The serialize() function returns a string representation of any value that can be stored in PHP. The unserialize() function uses this line to restore the original value of the variable.