Doctrine and Postgres Arrays

I found that Doctrine array types use serialize / unserialize and store data inside "simple" fields like text, integer.

But I have a project with a postgres database with some fields as arrays (mostly text). I want to use this database with Doctrine. Is there any way to handle this?

thank

EDIT:

ps: now i know sql arrays can be good practice thanks to Craig Ringer.

Perhaps I can create a custom type. Is there anyone who has already done this?

EDIT 2:

The problem is half solved:

<?php
namespace mysite\MyBundle\Types;

use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\AbstractPlatform;

 /**
  * My custom postgres text array datatype.
 */
class TEXTARRAY extends Type
{
     const TEXTARRAY = 'textarray'; // modify to match your type name

    public function getSqlDeclaration(array $fieldDeclaration, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        return $platform->getDoctrineTypeMapping('TEXTARRAY');
    }

    public function convertToPHPValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
    // This is executed when the value is read from the database. Make your conversions here, optionally using the $platform.
        return explode('","', trim($value, '{""}') );
    }

    public function convertToDatabaseValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
    // This is executed when the value is written to the database. Make your conversions here, optionally using the $platform.

        settype($value, 'array'); // can be called with a scalar or array
        $result = array();
        foreach ($set as $t) {
            if (is_array($t)) {
                $result[] = to_pg_array($t);
            } else {
                $t = str_replace('"', '\\"', $t); // escape double quote
                if (! is_numeric($t)) // quote only non-numeric values
                    $t = '"' . $t . '"';
                $result[] = $t;
            }
        }
        return '{' . implode(",", $result) . '}'; // format      

    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return self::TEXTARRAY; // modify to match your constant name
    }
}

and controller

<?php

namespace mysite\MyBundle;

 use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Bundle\Bundle;
 use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;
 use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;

 class mysiteMyBundle extends Bundle
{
    public function boot() {
        Type::addType('textarray', 'mysite\MyBundle\Types\TextArray');
        $em = $this->container->get('doctrine.orm.default_entity_manager');
        $conn = $em->getConnection();
        $conn->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('TEXTARRAY', 'textarray');
    }
}

I know that I want to search inside these arrays with queries like "myword" = ANY (myarrayfield) ... Does anyone have a key?

- # doctrine2 , DQL, :

<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Query\Lexer;
use Doctrine\ORM\Query\AST\Functions\FunctionNode;

class ANY extends FunctionNode {

    public $field;


    public function getSql(\Doctrine\ORM\Query\SqlWalker $sqlWalker) {
        return 'ANY(' .
            $this->field->dispatch($sqlWalker) . ')';
    }

    public function parse(\Doctrine\ORM\Query\Parser $parser) {
        $parser->match(Lexer::T_IDENTIFIER);
        $parser->match(Lexer::T_OPEN_PARENTHESIS);
        $this->field = $parser->StringPrimary();
        $parser->match(Lexer::T_CLOSE_PARENTHESIS);
    }
}

, , , ,

$arr[] = $qb->expr()->like($alias.".".$field, $qb->expr()->literal('%'.trim($val).'%') );

if(count($arr) > 0) $qb->Where(new Expr\Orx($arr));
else unset($arr);

, ?:\