decoding jquery json data in php
- by Mac Taylor
hey guys  recenlty i made a script to move objects and save the orders 
now i have a little to do to finish this script 
everything works fine  , just one question  :
how can i save not numeric data in my json script 
this is my script :
function updateWidgetData(){
    var items=[];
    $('.widget-title').each(function(){
        var weightId=$(this).attr('id');    
    $('.column').each(function(){
        var columnId=$(this).attr('id');
    $('.widget', this).each(function(i){
            var collapsed=0;
            if($(this).find('.widget-inside').css('display')=="none")
                collapsed=1;
            //Create Item object for current panel
            var item={
                id: $(this).attr('id'),
                collapsed: collapsed,
                order : i,
                column: columnId,
                weight: weightId
            };
            //Push item object into items array
            items.push(item);
        });
    });
    });
    //Assign items array to sortorder JSON variable
    var sortorder={ items: items };
    //Pass sortorder variable to server using ajax to save state
    $.post('updatePanels.php', 'data='+$.toJSON(sortorder), function(response){
        if(response=="success")
            $("#console").html('<div class="success">Saved</div>').hide().fadeIn(1000);
        setTimeout(function(){
            $('#console').fadeOut(1000);
        }, 2000);
    });
}
and this is my php script :
$data=json_decode($_POST["data"]);
foreach($data->items as $item)
{
    //Extract column number for panel
    $col_id=preg_replace('/[^\d\s]/', '', $item->column);
    //Extract id of the panel
    $widget_id=preg_replace('/[^\d\s]/', '', $item->id);
    $sql="UPDATE widgets SET column_id='$col_id', sort_no='".$item->order."', collapsed='".$item->collapsed."' WHERE id='".$widget_id."'";
    mysql_query($sql) or die('Error updating widget DB');
}
echo "success";
everything works fine till i use  numeric value for columns' id   but i need non numeric values  forexample  
 id='columnr'
i want to extract  r 
but i cant get it right 
any help  plz !?