php convert string variable to array

Question

I have string and need convert to array.

<?php
$str = '"en"=>"English" , "fr"=>"French" , "de"=>"German"';
$array = array($str);
print_r($array)
?>

I need this result:

Array
(
    [en] => English
    [fr] => French
    [de] => German
)

Is there a function in PHP to do this?

when try below code, I get good result.but when use uppern code, NO! How to convert String variable for input array?

<?php
//$str = '"en"=>"English" , "fr"=>"French" , "de"=>"German"';
$array = array("en"=>"English" , "fr"=>"French" , "de"=>"German");
print_r($array)
?>

Answer 1

As said in the comments, you should probably look in to json if you have a way of changing the string, else something like this will suffice:

$str = '"en"=>"English" , "fr"=>"French" , "de"=>"German"';
$first = explode(' , ',$str);

$second = array();
foreach($first as $item) {
    list($key, $value) = explode('=>', $item);
    $second[str_replace('"', '', $key)] = $value;
}

Which returns:

Array
(
    [en] => "English"
    [fr] => "French"
    [de] => "German"
)

Example

Answer 2

You can use eval, In your case could be something like this:

$str = '"en"=>"English" , "fr"=>"French" , "de"=>"German"';
eval("\$array = array($str);");
print_r($array)

Result:

Array
(
    [en] => English
    [fr] => French
    [de] => German
)