quick session variable question

[Anon]

Hey all,

Just wondering something.

I am starting to use session variables again and am baffled.

How do you change a session var?

Example: I have a session var used to track current state. But after I set it to say 1, I can not seem to change it to say 2.

I know this must be easy to do but must be doing something wrong.

Thanks

[lawnmowerman]

Once a variable is registered with the session, you can change it like any other variable and the value in the session should update as well.

Make sure you are explicitly resuming the session with session_start() at the top of each page before you try to access/change the variable.

Of course, if you change your php.ini file to include 'session.auto_start = 1' this is not necessary.

-Rich

[Anon]

IF you set to do session start automatically, does it do it every php page on the server and is there a performance drop then?

[lawnmowerman]

That is correct. Every time a browser goes to a PHP page on the server, a session is either started or resumed. On a very small server, there shouldn't be much of a performance issue, but if most pages aren't using sessions, it's a waste of resources, even if performance isn't highly effected.

Of course, if every (or a vast majority) of page on the server use sessions, you should not notice a performance hit.

I'd say that you'd probably be better off coding in the session_start() at the beginning of the pages using sessions. I generally put all the session functions and code into a single include file and include that file in every page for the site that needs sessions. This way, you can change the session code easily for every page at once.

-Rich