Are there any reasons not to want to use a multi dimensional SESSION array to store temporary user data?
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Im looking for best practices when making a shopping cartchris– chris2009-09-10 14:35:24 +00:00Commented Sep 10, 2009 at 14:35
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3 Answers
I'd say it depends more on the size of the data and not on the number of dimensions, because the data is serialized before storing. Of course, a deep multi-dimensional array may cause a performance hit too, but this is a common indicator that there's a better way to do it.
Comments
Unless you're storing megabytes worth of data, it should make negligible performance difference how you choose to make use of the $_SESSION array, as it just gets serialized to a string. Personally, I'm a fan of creating a Session class and saving an instance of it in $_SESSION['session']. Something like this:
<?php
class Session
{
private $something;
public function Session()
{
// Constructory things
}
// Methods to your heart's content
}
if (session_id() == '')
{
session_start();
}
if (empty($_SESSION['session']))
{
$_SESSION['session'] = new Session();
}
$session =& $_SESSION['session'];
?>
Save that in a file called session.php, and then just require 'session.php' at the top of every php file where you need access to the session, and access the session through the $session variable defined at the bottom.
Comments
None that i can think of.
If you are worried serialize it first into a string.
2 Comments
soulmerge
The array will be serialized anyway
Peter Bailey
No point - data is automatically serialized by PHP before being stored anyway.