Store a complete array in a cookie

Question

I have the following array:

Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 1 [2] => 3 [3] => 6 )

and I would like to store it in a cookie. This is the code I tried:

$cart_array = Array ( [0] => 1 
          [1] => 1 
          [2] => 3 
          [3] => 6 );

setcookie('cart_array',$cart_array,time()+3600);

when I display the contents of the cookie using print_r($_Cookie), this is what I get:

Array ( [cart] => Array ( [0] => 6 [id] => 2 ) [_ga] => GA1.1.499529088.1424453778 [PHPSESSID] => aj8p5l5ph77n04tab50i83ie34 )

instead of the array I inserted to cookie. Please assist

Why not store it in a session instead? From the [PHPSESSID] key it looks like you're using them. — Digits, May 04 '15 at 18:08
I need to use cookies for this project. I am comfortable with sessions, but just starting to get into cookies — kya, May 04 '15 at 18:09

Yann Chabot · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-04T18:15:45.250

I think you're looking for serialize:

<?php
$a = array(1 => 'a', 2 => 'b', 3 => 'c');
$b = serialize($a);
var_dump($b); ////Returns this string(42) "a:3:{i:1;s:1:"a";i:2;s:1:"b";i:3;s:1:"c";}"
$c = unserialize($b);
print_r($c); //Return the same thing as $a

Try out this code, you use serialize to convert an array to string and then you can easily store it. Then, you unserialize to have the array back !

Doc: http://php.net/manual/fr/function.serialize.php

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '15 at 18:12

0

Cookies does not work with arrays - they are only strings on the local computer. With

$res = serialize($arr);

you can convert an array to a string. (Convert it back with unserialize($arr).)

answered May 04 '15 at 18:12

Richard

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

0

Use this:

setcookie('cart_array',implode('|',$cart_array),time()+3600);

Use this to read cookie back to array:

$cart_array = explode('|',$_COOKIE['cart_array'])

Although I don't think its really necessary to do that. but, just answering your question.

And please be careful to the total length of the Cookie What is the maximum size of a cookie

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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answered May 04 '15 at 18:13

Shiji.J

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 04 '15 at 18:17

Use serialize()

setcookie('cart_array',serialize($cart_array),time()+3600);

$cart_array = unserialize($_COOKIE['cart_array']);

Depending on special characters that may arise (not likely, but good to know if you do) you may also need urlencode():

setcookie('cart_array',urlencode(serialize($cart_array))),time()+3600);


$cart_array = unserialize(urldecone($_COOKIE['cart_array']));

Store a complete array in a cookie

4 Answers4