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From: Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.php
Subject: Re: parsing print_r() output with preg_match_all()
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 21:56:42 +1300
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Anders Wegge Keller wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 08:34:03 +0100
> Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> wrote:
>
>> If one does not have any experience with XML, even this may not be clear
>> to him:
>>
>> <elements>
>>    <element key="a" value="apple" />
>>    <element key="b" value="banana" />
>>    <element key="c">
>>      <element key="0" value="x" />
>>      <element key="1" value="y" />
>>      <element key="3" value="z" />
>>    </element>
>> </elements>
>>
>> And is the key always a string or will numbers be treated different? In
>> JSON it is possible to differentiate the data type as well, if needed:
>>
>> {
>>      "a": "apple",
>>      "b": "banana",
>>      "c": [
>>          1,
>>          2,
>>          3
>>      ]
>> }
>>
>>
>
>   Didn't OP state "Human readable" as a requirement? The S/N ratio is much
> better with JSON. For this simple structure, it is manageable, but when you
> get a multi-megabyt XML file, it is time to bring out the special tools.

Very true.

The JSON representation will be shorter (with or without pretty 
printing) than the output of print_r() while conveying the same 
information.  It also has the advantage of built in encoder and decoder 
- no messing with manual parsing.

-- 
Ian Collins