Convert string into array using php

I am trying to generate the array structure as coding style so it can be used for further development for that purpose i have used following:

function convertArray($string)
{
        $finalString = var_export($string, true);
        return stripslashes($finalString);
}

It worked fine but the problem is that it adds the additional quotes to the start and end of the value how can i remove these quotes.

Example generated string is as follows:

array (
  'foo' => 'array('foo','bar','baz')',
  'bar' => 'array('foo','bar')',
  'baz' => 'array('foo','bar')',
);

The string i need is:

array (
      'foo' => array('foo','bar','baz'),
      'bar' => array('foo','bar'),
      'baz' => array('foo','bar'),
    );

UPDATE

Here is how i create my array:

foreach( $attributes as $attrib )
    {
        if( $attrib->primary_key == '1' )
            $column[$attrib->name] = array("'$attrib->type'", "'$attrib->max_length'", '\'pk\'');
        else
            $column[$attrib->name] = array("'$attrib->type'", "'$attrib->max_length'");

        $string[$attrib->name] = 'array('.implode(',', $column[$attrib->name]).')';
    }

after processing from this loop the final array sent to the above function to convert it into my desired form/