What is this encoding called?
<p>I see it in Wordpress in the database and i now see similar in a cookie. What kind of parser parses this:</p>

<pre><code>a:4:{s:14:"clientsorderby";s:9:"firstname";s:12:"clientsorder";s:4:"DESC";s:13:"ordersorderby";s:2:"id";s:11:"ordersorder";s:4:"DESC";}
</code></pre>

<p>I get it, its a=array:x=number of children s=string:x=number of characters.</p>

<p>Is there a parser built into php for this kind of thing? why do they use this method?</p>
