This process makes a storable representation of a value that is useful for storing or passing PHP values around without losing their type and structure.
<?php
$the_array = array( "Merriet", "Jerry", "Drupal", "PHP" );
$serialized = serialize($the_array);
print $serialized.'<br/>';
print_r(unserialize($serialized));
?>
Output:
Serialize: a:4:{i:0;s:7:"Merriet";i:1;s:5:"Jerry";i:2;s:6:"Drupal";i:3;s:3:"PHP";}
Unserialize: Array ( [0] => Merriet [1] => Jerry [2] => Drupal [3] => PHP )
