<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> </BLOCKQUOTE><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Database *friendly* would be making a column for Name and a column for</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Phone so that other tables in the database could do things like joins</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">on the data.</FONT></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>unless you don't know what the column names are, or how many columns there will be, which is the case with the example you're using.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">My perspective is clouded by being more comfortable on a sql> prompt</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">than in a PHP file, but serialized data in the DB makes me shudder</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">nearly every time I see it.</FONT></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>i've never understood why serialization gets such a bad rap. it's just merely one technique that has it's own particular advantages and disadvantages--retrieval of data via sql queries being a weakness in this case... :) but it also allows for a certain on-the-fly flexibliliy and ease of use that trying to table-ize everything doesn't. </DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Sorry for the relatively OT rant, but while there are shortcut</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">benefits on the PHP side to doing things like serializing data and</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">storing it in the DB it can lead to inefficiencies and handcuffs in</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">the long run.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Databases tend to go really slowly for queries that</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">look like...</FONT></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>agreed. but also, some implementations (like the signup form when it was designed) aren't focused on that kind of data retrieval, and have their own needs. in the case of the signup form, i needed a straightforward way to store themable form data for later display, so serialization was a logical choice.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>my view is that every tool probably has an appropriate situation where it's useful, including the much-maligned serialization of data... :)</DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"> </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>