So one of my columns in my table has values like this
a:2:{i:0;s:6:"Subbed";i:1;s:6:"Dubbed";}
Right now it's stored as longtext and I've heard that varchar is faster than longtext if you're going to query it often.
So I have two questions, can values like this be stored as varchar and how do I retrieve these values as an array in php like ["Subbed, "Dubbed"].
How do I insert values like this if I have something like ["Subbed", "Dubbed"] and I want a:2:{i:0;s:6:"Subbed";i:1;s:6:"Dubbed";} .
Finally, is this something like a stringified array?
See this question: MySQL: Large VARCHAR vs. TEXT?
It's the format used by serialization functions in php! You get to learn stuff every day. Check the PHP documentation.