How create an array from the output of an array printed with print_r?

I actually wrote a function that parses a "stringed array" into an actual array. Obviously, it's somewhat hacky and whatnot, but it works on my testcase. Here's a link to a functioning prototype at http://codepad.org/idlXdij3.

I'll post the code inline too, for those people that don't feel like clicking on the link:

<?php
     /**
      * @author ninetwozero
      */
?>
<?php
    //The array we begin with
    $start_array = array('foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'foo', 'foobar' => 'barfoo');

    //Convert the array to a string
    $array_string = print_r($start_array, true);

    //Get the new array
    $end_array = text_to_array($array_string);

    //Output the array!
    print_r($end_array);

    function text_to_array($str) {

        //Initialize arrays
        $keys = array();
        $values = array();
        $output = array();

        //Is it an array?
        if( substr($str, 0, 5) == 'Array' ) {

            //Let's parse it (hopefully it won't clash)
            $array_contents = substr($str, 7, -2);
            $array_contents = str_replace(array('[', ']', '=>'), array('#!#', '#?#', ''), $array_contents);
            $array_fields = explode("#!#", $array_contents);

            //For each array-field, we need to explode on the delimiters I've set and make it look funny.
            for($i = 0; $i < count($array_fields); $i++ ) {

                //First run is glitched, so let's pass on that one.
                if( $i != 0 ) {

                    $bits = explode('#?#', $array_fields[$i]);
                    if( $bits[0] != '' ) $output[$bits[0]] = $bits[1];

                }
            }

            //Return the output.
            return $output;

        } else {

            //Duh, not an array.
            echo 'The given parameter is not an array.';
            return null;
        }

    }
?>

If you want to store an array as string, use serialize ^[docs] and unserialize ^[docs].

To answer your question: No, there is no built-in function to parse the output of print_r into an array again.