Best way to store an array in MySQL database?

Definitely not a text field, but a varchar -- perhaps. I wouldn't recommend parsing the results and storing them in individual columns unless you want to take advantage of that data in database sense -- statistics etc.

If you never see yourself asking "What is the average volume that users use?" then don't bother parsing it.

To figure out how to store this data ask yourself "How will i use it later?" If you will obtain the array and need to utilize it with PHP you can use serialize function. If you will use the values in JavaScript then JSON encoding will probably be best for you (plus many languages know how to decode it)

Good luck!

I suggest you to take a look at the JSON data type. This way you can store your array in a more efficient way than text or varchar, and you can access your data directly form MySQL without having to parse the whole thing.

Take a look at this link : https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/json.html

If speed is the most important when retrieving the rows then make a new table and make it dedicated to holding the indices of your array. Use the data type of integer and have each row represent an index of the array. You'll have to create another numeric column which binds these together so you can re-assemble the array with an SQL query.

This way you help MySQL help you speed up access. If you only want certain parts of the array, you just change the range in the SQL query and you can reassemble the array however you want.