Merge meta_value’s into a single row and then loop

It would appear simply un-serialising works:

        $results =  $wpdb->get_results( $sql_str );

        foreach($results as &$result) {

            $result-> my_custom_meta_values = unserialize($result-> my_custom_meta_values);
        }

If anyone can suggest a more efficient way to do this, I’d be interested.