export/import arbitrary data as text

I am looking for a way to convert arbitrary array data (not structs) into a text format suitable for storage as a text field in a database, and the inverse function to read that data back into Matlab. The ideal solution would permit >2D arrays, and deal with cell, char, and all numeric data types, losing as little precision as possible.

I am currently converting such data into a binary blob, but this limits access to the data to Matlab, and I'm getting a lot of pressure for Python and other languages to be supported. This means the solution must be a string that can be converted by those other languages as well as created by them.

I can think of relatively easy solutions to 2D arrays, but if someone has already written an N-D solution that would be marvelous.

Thanks.

[Walter Roberson]

Would XML work?

[John]

If it is text that can handle N-dimensional numeric data in all formats and NxM character cell data, export it and then reimport it without change, yes. I had not thought of XML, but I'll look see. Thanks.