Storing nested arrays in a cookie

Question

I am trying to store nested arrays in a cookie. I decided to store the array as a JSON string. However, I am getting this warning:

PHP Warning: Cookie values can not contain any of the following ',; \t\r\n\013\014' in foobar.php

Is there a recommended way of storing nested arrays in a cookie?

Answer 1

You could use base64_encode() and base64_decode()

Note that according to the manual:

Base64-encoded data takes about 33% more space than the original data.

Answer 2

I don't think that's a clean way to do it, but you could urlencode the json_encoded string to be able to store it in a cookie.

Edit: Tom Haigh way is certainly cleaner (using base64_encode).

Answer 3

$array = array();
$array[] = array(1,2,3);
$array[] = array('a','b','c');
setcookie("test",serialize($array));

Just serialize, works just fine.

You get that in your cookie:

'test' => string 'a:2:{i:0;a:3:{i:0;i:1;i:1;i:2;i:2;i:3;}i:1;a:3:{i:0;s:1:"a";i:1;s:1:"b";i:2;s:1:"c";}}' (length=86)

Answer 4

If you have some other form of persistence available (db, sessions, memcache), I'd recommend storing the real data there. Then put a unique identifier in the cookie, which can be used to look up the desired data. It's just a lot cleaner and more secure.

Answer 5

Is there a recommended way of storing nested arrays in a cookie?

Yes - don't. Store it serverside using a session or other handle. Not only are there formatting and scope issues with storing data in cookies, there's also a file size limt.

C.