PHP: How to turn a string that contains an array expression in an actual array?

Question

I have an array of user inputs ($atts) as key=>value pairs. Some of the values could be written as an array expression, such as:

\'setting\' => \'array(50,25)         


        

Answer 1

function stringToArray($string) {
        $string = "return " . $string . ";";
        if (function_exists("token_get_all")) {//tokenizer extension may be disabled
            $php = "";
            $tokens = token_get_all($php);
                        foreach ($tokens as $token) {
                $type = $token[0];
                if (is_long($type)) {
                    if (in_array($type, array(
                            T_OPEN_TAG, 
                            T_RETURN, 
                            T_WHITESPACE, 
                            T_ARRAY, 
                            T_LNUMBER, 
                            T_DNUMBER,
                            T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, 
                            T_DOUBLE_ARROW, 
                            T_CLOSE_TAG,
                            T_NEW,
                            T_DOUBLE_COLON
                            ))) {
                        continue;
                    }


                    exit("For your security, we stoped data parsing at '(" . token_name($type) . ") " . $token[1] . "'.");
                }
            }
        }

        return eval($string);
    }

$a='array(10,20)';
print_r(stringToArray($a));