how to pass an hierarchical array through command line to a php file

Question

I want to pass an array from command line to php as:

c:\<path>\php.exe somefile.php --filter array{['name']=>"lion",['category']=>array{['teeth']=>'long_teeth',['height']=>'short'}}

and now in code I want variable filter as an array as I passed through command line like:

$opt['filter'] = array {
                    ['name']=>"lion",
                    ['category']=>
                        array{
                              ['teeth']=>'long_teeth',
                              ['height']=>'short'
                             }
                       }

But the problem is passed argument becomes string and I am not able to parse it to array. I am using getopt() function to get filter as an attribute to array variable $opt like:

$shortopts = "abc"; // These options do not accept values

$longopts  = array(
    "filter:",     // Required value
);<br>
$opt = getopt($shortopts, $longopts);

actually whole scenario is to take a variable as an array or string or a boolean value and pass it to another php script as it is and that script I am calling through exec function like: exec(c:\\<path>\\php.exe myphpscript.php --filter $array_variable ); and then in myphpscript.php, I want to use $array_variable as it was in earlier script so that I can use it as it was.

Answer 1

Command line arguments are strings and only strings.

As you want to pass in a hierarchical element the only option is to parse the string. However JSON encoding is nice, easy and compact.

Passing the following on the command line and then parsing with json_decode will give you the required results;

{"Name":"Lion","Category":{"teeth":"long_teeth","height":"short"}}

simple proof:

$opt = '{"Name":"Lion","Category":{"teeth":"long_teeth","height":"short"}}';
print_r(json_decode($opt));

Answer 2

Command line arguments can only be strings, there's no way to pass any complex data structures like arrays directly on the command line. You can serialize an array into a string though and unserialize that argument in your program. So you can pass an array around as a string. The most obvious candidate is the JSON format, see json_decode .