<?php

// from creole
function strToArray($str)
{
	$str = substr($str, 1, -1); // remove { }
	$res = array();
	
	$subarr = array();
	$in_subarr = 0;
	
	$toks = explode(',', $str);
	foreach($toks as $tok) {					
		if ($in_subarr > 0) { // already in sub-array?
			$subarr[$in_subarr][] = $tok;
			if ('}' === substr($tok, -1, 1)) { // check to see if we just added last component					
				$res[] = $this->strToArray(implode(',', $subarr[$in_subarr]));
				$in_subarr--;
			}
		} elseif ($tok{0} === '{') { // we're inside a new sub-array							   
			if ('}' !== substr($tok, -1, 1)) {
				$in_subarr++;
				// if sub-array has more than one element
				$subarr[$in_subarr] = array();
				$subarr[$in_subarr][] = $tok;					
			} else {
				$res[] = $this->strToArray($tok);
			}
		} else { // not sub-array
			$val = trim($tok, '"'); // remove " (surrounding strings)
			// perform type castng here?
			$res[] = $val;
		}
	}
	
	return $res;
}