Storing PHP Arrays in Cookies

Storing PHP arrays in cookies

Serialize data:

setcookie('cookie', serialize($info), time()+3600);

Then unserialize data:

$data = unserialize($_COOKIE['cookie'], ["allowed_classes" => false]);

After data, $info and $data will have the same content.

Storing and retrieving an array in a PHP cookie

Use json_encode / json_decode to get / set arrays in cookies.

Test array

$cardArray=array(
    'CARD 1'=>array('FRONT I', 'BACK I'),
    'CARD 2'=>array('FRONT 2', 'BACK 2')
);

convert and write the cookie

$json = json_encode($cardArray);
setcookie('cards', $json);

the saved string looks like this

{"CARD 1":["FRONT I","BACK I"],"CARD 2":["FRONT 2","BACK 2"]}

get the cookie back

$cookie = $_COOKIE['cards'];
$cookie = stripslashes($cookie);
$savedCardArray = json_decode($cookie, true);

show the restored array

echo '<pre>';
print_r($savedCardArray);
echo '</pre>';

outputs

Array
(
    [CARD 1] => Array
        (
            [0] => FRONT I
            [1] => BACK I
        )

    [CARD 2] => Array
        (
            [0] => FRONT 2
            [1] => BACK 2
        )

)

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Edit

If you wonder about stripslashes, it is because the string saved actually is

{\"CARD 1\":[\"FRONT I\",\"BACK I\"],\"CARD 2\":[\"FRONT 2\",\"BACK 2\"]}

setcookie adds \ before quoutes to escape them. If you not get rid of those, json_decode will fail.

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Edit II

To add a new card to the cookie

1. load the array as above
2. $savedCardArray['CARD XX']=array('FRONT XX', 'BACK XX');
3. save the array as above, but now of course $savedCardArray and not $cardArray.

How to store a php array inside a cookie?

When you store a cookie with the same name, it gets overwritten. You also seem to be storing the individual task and not the array. If you would like to store the array safely, you can attempt to store it as JSON.

It would look like this:

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
    
    $task = htmlentities($_POST['task']);

    //Check if the cookie exists already and decode it if so, otherwise pass a new array
    $tasks = !empty($_COOKIE['tasks']) ? json_decode($_COOKIE['tasks']) : [];
    //if(isset($_COOKIE[$task])) {

        array_push($tasks, $task);

      //  echo $_COOKIE[$task];
        
    //}

    $encodedTasks = json_encode($tasks);

    setcookie('task', $encodedTasks, time() + 3600);

    header('Location: index.php');
}

You seem to be checking if the value of the post variable is a key in your array rather than using the 'tasks' key as you set in your setcookie. You do not need to see if the array exists again as you passed either the decoded array or the empty array as 'task'

Storing arrays in cookies

How about generating a unique ID, storing it in a cookie, and storing your serialized array and the ID in database?

Example:

// ------------ STORING TO COOKIE AND DATABASE ------------ //
$id = uniqid();
setcookie("id", $id, time()+60*60*24); // 1 day

$serialized = serialize($array);
mysql_query("INSERT INTO yourTable (id, array) VALUES ('$id', '$serialized')");


// ------------ SELECTING FROM DATABASE ------------ //
if(!isset($_COOKIE['id'])) die();
$id = mysql_real_escape_string($_COOKIE['id']);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT array FROM yourTable WHERE id = $id LIMIT 1");
if(!is_resource($result)) die();
$serialized = mysql_result($result, 0);
$array = unserialize($serialized);

Update an array stored in a cookie with a new value each time a page is loaded

Tried your code here, everything works perfectly. Try clearing cookies on your browser, possibly just a local problem

Store a complete array in a cookie

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

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