protected function get_unescaped_options($value) {

        // Can be multiple comma separated, with valuable commas escaped with backslash.
        $optionsarray = array_map(
            'trim',
            preg_replace('/\\\,/', ',',
                preg_split('/(?<!\\\),/', $value)
           )
        );

        // Sort by value (keeping the keys is irrelevant).
        core_collator::asort($optionsarray, SORT_STRING);

        // Returning it as a string which is easier to match against other values.
        return implode('|||', $optionsarray);
    }