How To Extract data

I’m fairly new to WordPress, but have a programming background. I need to extract some data from a custom post. The post data resembles what I see in the wp_options table, for instance:
a:2:{i:407712721;a:4:{s:5:”title”;s:0:””;s:5:”count”;b:0;s:12:”hierarchical”;b:0;s:8:”dropdown”;b:0;}s:12:”_multiwidget”;i:1;}

Is there a page in the Codex, or an article that would help me interpret how to extract data stored in WordPress in a fashion like what is shown above?

Thanks
Daryl