- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- parse_str: documentation ( source)
<?php
$str = 'foo=val&bar[]=1&bar[]=2&bar[]=3&baz[key1]=val1&baz[key2]=val2&baz[key3]=val3';
// this emulates how $_POST and $_GET are decoded
parse_str($str, $arr);
var_dump($arr);