Converting Session $data Into An Array?

Question

In the write function for a session save handler $data is passed in a format like this:

test|a:1:{s:3:"foo";s:3:"bar";}session|a:2:{s:10:"isLoggedIn";b:1;s:8:"clientId";s:5:"12345 ";}

Is there a way to convert that into the proper array which would be:

array
(
    'test' => array
    (
        'foo' => 'bar'
    )
    'session' => array
    (
        'isLoggedIn' => true
        'clientId' => '12345'
    )
)

I tried passing that into unserialize but I get an error of:

unserialize() [function.unserialize]: Error at offset 0 of 95 bytes

and it just return false.

Please properly serialize the string, don't use some custom function. — NikiC
– NikiC, Commented Dec 9, 2011 at 13:54
If this is the original string, then it's no wonder unserialize fails. It's malformed. Don't use malformed inputs. — N.B.
– N.B., Commented Dec 9, 2011 at 14:02

mishu · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-09 14:10:28Z

8

about the other answer. the description for session_decode is "session_decode() decodes the session data in data, setting variables stored in the session. " that doesn't sound like it does what you need.. and also it will always return bool after parsing a string.

on the other hand, if the string you provided as an example had a mistake, the space after "12345" (and it looks like a mistake because in front of it you can see that the following value should be a string with the length 5) you can use this function:

function unserialize_session_data( $serialized_string ) 
{
    $variables = array();
    $a = preg_split( "/(\w+)\|/", $serialized_string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );

    for( $i = 0; $i<count($a); $i = $i+2 )
    {
        if(isset($a[$i+1]))
        {
                $variables[$a[$i]] = unserialize( $a[$i+1] );
        }
    }
    return( $variables );
}

answered Dec 9, 2011 at 14:10

mishu

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4 Comments

Reactgular Over a year ago

I'm sure this won't work if there are pipe characters already in the session data.

ctrl-alt-dileep Over a year ago

Thank you so much for this. As for |s. I replace pipes before the session encode process or it fails to save properly. After decoding I replace the replacement.

Smile Over a year ago

You saved me friend (y)

Faridzs Over a year ago

After 5 hours of searching finally this one worked , thank you very much

Markel Mairs · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-09 13:55:05Z

3

Try session_decode

answered Dec 9, 2011 at 13:55

Markel Mairs

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2 Comments

ryanzec Over a year ago

ok, well that does what I want for the write however is there a way to convert an array into a valid session string for the read (note that I am wanted to store the session as an array in mongodb to be able to better debug session data if I need to)

Markel Mairs Over a year ago

There is some good examples here

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