Storing array or std object in database of Laravel app

You can save/insert serialized data in to a TEXT type field but for this you have to something using php, for example:

$arr = array('x', 'y', 'z');

To insert this into a database field you can use serialize function like this

$serializedArr = serialize($arr);

Now, you can insert the $serializedArr array in to databse and when you retrieve the data to use, just unserialize it using somethig like:

$record = SomeModel::find(1);
unserialize($record->field_name);

Also, you can use, Laravel’s accessors-and-mutators to make the whole thing automated, check the manual, it’s dead simple. If you need more help on this accessors-and mutators then leave a message with your table details.

Update:

Since Laravel 5.x allows attribute casting so it’s possible to cast attributes to another data type for converting on runtime. In this case, just declare a protected $casts property for example:

protected $casts = [
    'is_admin' => 'boolean', // Will convarted to (Bool)
    'options' => 'array', // Will convarted to (Array)
];

The array cast is particularly useful for working with columns that are stored as serialized JSON. For example, if your database has a TEXT type field that contains serialized JSON, adding the array cast to that attribute will automatically deserialize the attribute to a PHP array when you access it on your Eloquent model and also it’ll be automatically serialized back to JSON when you set value to this property, for example:

$user = User::find(1);

// $options is an array...
$options = $user->options;

// options is automatically serialized back to JSON...
$user->options = ['foo' => 'bar'];