I have a php array structure
Array
(
[car] => Array
(
[red] => 0.333
[orange] => 0.333
[blue] => 0.333
)
[truck] => Array
(
[white] => 0.333
[green] => 0.333
[blue] => 0.333
)
)
I have been using serialize to save the array to a text file, and unserialize to get back the array form. Unfortunately, the serialized array is getting very large, but mostly due to the float point (bug or by design) conversion when serialized. For example, instead of 0.333, the serialized process converts .333 into .3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333. This made me want to switch to json_encode to save the array. When compare serialize to json_encode, the serialized file is 40MB in size vs 8MB size for json_encode.
That is great, except when I try to json_decode the file, it is no longer in the array form. I tried json_decode($array, true), but that does not work either.
Any idea how to get json_encode to work for this example?
TIA
PS, my floating point number was generated by rounding off the decimals. Another answer that I found on StackO suggested that instead of using round($part/$sum, 3);, use sprintf('%.3f', $part/$sum); which turned the floating point into a string. That alone cut the serialized file down from 40MB to 19MB, but it still much larger than the json_encode file size of 8MB.
