oh I managed it
I created a hidden field like so:
<input type="hidden" id="<?php echo $field[ 'name' ]; ?>" name="<?php echo $field[ 'name' ]; ?>" value="<?php esc_attr( $field[ 'value' ] ); ?>" />
this can store my serialized data which is what I wanted
I will use php or javascript to build a table based on the serialized data stored in the hidden field value
