Storing and retrieving arrays in cookies

[Anon]

Hello,

I can't seem to store and retrieve an array correctly from a cookie. The code I use:

FILE 1 // storing the cookie

<?
$per = array();
$per[fname] = $fname;
$per[lname] = $lname;
setcookie("Per", $serialize($per), time()+3600);
?>

FILE 2 // retrieving the values back

<?
unserialize($Per);
list($fname, $lname) = $Per;
?>

---

This gives me something for $Per (after unserializing):
a:2:{s:5:\"fname\";s:6:\"Steven\";s:5:\"lname\";s:18:\"Vandenbollenwinkel\";}
and when I run the is_array on that it returns FALSE...
Useless to say that neither $fname nor $lname contain any significant value...

I haven't found any comprehensible (not for me anyway) information on this topic, so if anyone can point me to a good doc on this or tell me how it should be done, that would be a tremendous help.

Thx in advance,

Steven

[Anon]

You must use the return value of unserialize not the value itself.

 $arr = unserialize($per);

$arr should an array of unserialized values.

Hope this helps

JBL

[Anon]

JB Lallement wrote:

You must use the return value of unserialize not the value itself.

 $arr = unserialize($per);

$arr should an array of unserialized values.

Hope this helps

Nope, it didn't 🙁
Still get:
a:2:{s:5:\"fname\";s:6:\"Steven\";s:5:\"lname\";s:18:\"Vandenbollenwinkel\;}

I understand the cookie, but apparently, the unserialize() function does not seem to do the necessary work...

I also tried to put all of the cookie values in the array, serialize the array in or outside the setcookie() command, but nothing does the trick.

For the moment, I use a workaround setting two cookies. That's OK if you only need two or three values to be stored in the cookie, but what if there are 20 or more ? That's why I'd like to know what's going on here.

Anybody ?

Steven

[Anon]

$Per contains the serialized values.
$Per = a:2:{s:5:\"fname\";s:6:\"Steven\";s:5:\"lname\";s:18:\"Vandenbollenwinkel\;}
That's what you've stored in the cookie and what you retrieve when reading the cookie. That's ok.

Now, when you unserialize $per, the function returns an array which contains the unserialized values. The values are stored in the returned array not in $per. $per stays unchanged.

Below is an example:

<? $fname="hello";
$lname="world";

$myarray=array();
$myarray[$fname]=$fname;
$myarray[$lname]=$lname;

$serialized=serialize($myarray);
echo "serialiazed:$serialized<br>";

// Here $serialized contains the value saved in the cookie

$unserialized=unserialize($serialized);

// unserialized array is stored in $unserialized.

echo "fname={$unserialized[$fname]}<br>";
echo "lname={$unserialized[$lname]}<br>";

?>

Test this.

Best regards

JBL

[Anon]

Thanks ! I had to fiddle the code a little like this:
<? $fname="hello";
$lname="world";

$myarray=array();
$myarray[fname]=$fname;
$myarray[lname]=$lname;

$serialized=serialize($myarray);
echo "serialiazed:$serialized<br>";

// Here $serialized contains the value saved in the cookie

$unserialized=unserialize($serialized);

// unserialized array is stored in $unserialized.

echo "fname=$unserialized[fname]<br>";
echo "lname=$unserialized[lname]<br>";

?>

Note that I removed the "$" signs on the array keys, and that does the trick.

Thanks for putting me on the right track 🙂

Steven

[Anon]

For anyone who is interested:

To store an array in a cookie:

<?
// create the array
$myarray = array();

// store values in the array
$myarray[value1] = $value1;
$myarray[value2] = $value2;
// ...

// serialize and urlencode the array
$serialized = serialize($myarray);
$urlencoded = urlencode($serialized);

// set the cookie
setcookie("mycookie", $urlencoded, time()+3600);
?>

To retrieve the array from the cookie:

<?
// urldecode and unserialize cookie value
$urldecoded = urldecode($mycookie);
$unserialized = unserialize($urldecoded);

// extract values from the array
echo "value1=$unserialized[value1]<br>";
echo "value2=$unserialized[value2]<br>";
// ...
?>

With many thanks to JBL, who put me on the right track (coming from Perl, one gets confused a little with vars in PHP 😉

Steven