JSON vs. Serialized Array in database

Pro JSON:

• The JSON data can be used by many different languages, not just PHP
• JSON data is human readable and writable.
• It takes up less space
• It is faster to encode JSON than to serialize

Pro Serialized Array:

• It is faster do unserialize than to JSON decode

As the comments indicate, JSON takes up less space than a serialize array. I also checked whether JSON or Serializing is faster, and surprisingly, it is faster to JSON encode than to Serialize. It is faster to unserialize than to JSON decode though.

This is the script I used to test:

<?php 
function runTime(){
      $mtime = microtime(); 
      $mtime = explode(' ', $mtime); 
      $mtime = $mtime[1] + $mtime[0]; 
      return $mtime; 
}
?> 
<pre>
<?php
$start = runTime();

$ser;

for($i=0; $i<1000; $i++){
    $a = array(a => 1, x => 10);
    $ser = serialize($a);
}
$total = runTime() - $start;
echo "Serializing 1000 times took \t$total seconds";
?>

<?php
$start = runTime();

$json;

for($i=0; $i<1000; $i++){
    $a = array(a => 1, x => 10);
    $json = json_encode($a);
}
$total = runTime() - $start;
echo "JSON encoding 1000 times took \t$total seconds";
?>

<?php
$start = runTime();

$ser;

for($i=0; $i<1000; $i++){
    $a = unserialize($ser);
}
$total = runTime() - $start;
echo "Unserializing 1000 times took \t$total seconds";
?>

<?php
$start = runTime();

$json;

for($i=0; $i<1000; $i++){
    $a = json_decode($json);
}
$total = runTime() - $start;
echo "JSON decoding 1000 times took \t$total seconds";
?>
</pre>

There was a lot of such questions on SO.

Preferred method to store PHP arrays (json_encode vs serialize)

In short: JSON is better for simple data, but it doesn't distinguish difference between object and associative array. Serialized data are bigger.

Use json for for arrays and communication with Javascript or other language. Use serialize for object or any internal PHP work for the current running script.