Perl implementation of PHP's native serialize() and unserialize() functions.

Scott Hurring
scott at hurring dot com
http://hurring.com/
Please be nice and send bugfixes and code improvements to me.

@version v0.91
@author Scott Hurring; scott at hurring dot com
@copyright Copyright (c) 2005 Scott Hurring
@license http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php GNU Public License

Most recent version can be found at:
http://hurring.com/code/perl/serialize/

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Unlike modules that make use of language-specific binary formats, the
output of serialize() is an ASCII string, meaning you can easily
manipulate it as you would any other string, i.e. sticking it
into a URL, a database, a file, etc...

Taken along with my python serialize implementation, this code will
enable you to transfer data between PHP, Python, and Perl using PHP's
data serialization format.

To serialize:
	# serialize an array into a string
	my $serialized_string = serialize(\@data);
	# or... serialize a hash into a string
	my $serialized_string = serialize(\%data);

To unserialize:
	# unserialize some string into python data
	$hash_ref = unserialize($serialized_string)

PHP Serialization Format:
	NULL		N;
	Boolean		b:1;			b:$data;
	Integer		i:123;			i:$data;
	Double		d:1.23;			d:$data;
	String		s:5:"Hello"		s:$length:"$data";
	Array		a:1:{i:1;i:2}		a:$key_count:{$key;$value}
						$value can be any data type

Supported Perl Types:
	Serializing:
	NULL (\0), int, double, string, hash, array

	Unserializing:
	NULL (\0), int, double, string, hash

*array is unserialized as a hash, becuase PHP only has one array
type "array()", which is analagous to Perl hash's.  When you try to
serialize a perl array, it's automagically converted into a hash
with keys numbered from 0 up.

Type Translation Table:
	(Perl)	(serialize)	(PHP)	    (unserialize)  (Perl)
	NULL 	=>		NULL 			=> NULL
	int 	=>		int 			=> int
	double 	=>		double			=> double
	string 	=>		string			=> string
	hash 	=>		array			=> hash
	array 	=>		array			=> hash

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Warning:

This code comes with absolutely NO warranty... it is a quick hack
that i sometimes work on in my spare time.  This code may or may
not melt-down your computer and give you nonsensical output.

Please, do not use this code in a production enviornment until
you've thoroughly tested it.

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