PHP does not store all variables in session

Question

Dear all

I'm assigning session variables by filling the $_SESSION - Array throughout my script. My problem is, that for some reason not all variables are available in the session.

here is a shortened version of my code for explaining this issue:

session_start();

print_r($_SESSION);

$_SESSION['lang']        = 'de';
$_SESSION['location_id'] = 11;
$_SESSION['region_id']   = 1;

$_SESSION['userid'] = 'eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3';
$_SESSION['hash']   = 'dce57f1e3bc6fba32afab93b0c38b662';

print_r($_SESSION);

first call prints something like this:

Array
(
)
Array
(
    [lang] => de
    [location_id] => 11
    [region_id] => 1
    [userid] => eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3
    [hash] => dce57f1e3bc6fba32afab93b0c38b662
)

the second call prints:

Array
(
    [lang] => de
    [location_id] => 11
    [region_id] => 1
)
Array
(
    [lang] => de
    [location_id] => 11
    [region_id] => 1
    [userid] => eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3
    [hash] => dce57f1e3bc6fba32afab93b0c38b662
)

As you can see, the important login information is not stored in the session. Does anybody has an idea what could be wrong with my session? Thanks for your answers!

Answer 1

Further expanding on what Pekka might be alluding to, if you have register globals on there may be a naming conflict with your session variables and other variables in your script. If possible turn register globals off or rename your variables they don't collide ($_SESSION'hash'] and $hash) and see what happens.

Answer 2

Hi, I now tried to assign the same variables ad different positions and scripts, sometimes the variable is stored in the session and sometimes not... by now I did not get any rule.

Any Ideas? Thanks for your answers

Answer 3

Paste this code, untouched, in a single script and run it several times. You should get the same results the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... time.

<?php
session_start();

print_r($_SESSION);

$_SESSION['lang']        = 'de';
$_SESSION['location_id'] = 11;
$_SESSION['region_id']   = 1;

$_SESSION['userid'] = 'eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3';
$_SESSION['hash']   = 'dce57f1e3bc6fba32afab93b0c38b662';

print_r($_SESSION);
?>

If it works, then you obviously have something wrong in your script that you are not posting. In that case you should provide more code in order to be able to help you.