PHP how to stringify array and store in cookie

Question

I got an array like this

$value = {array(\'id\'=>$id, \'email\'=>$email, \'token\'=>$token)}

I want to stringify the array then encode then store it in cooki

Answer 1

json_encode/json_decode

$_COOKIE['login'] = json_encode($array);
$array = json_decode($_COOKIE['login']);

Can also use serialize/unserialize:

$_COOKIE['login'] = serialize($array);
$array = unserialize($_COOKIE['login']);

Perhaps.

---

UPDATE

With this code:

 1234,
    'email' => 'example@example.com',
    'token' => base64_encode('abcDEF1234')
  );

  echo "Var Dump (initial):\r\n";
  var_dump($array);

  $serialized = serialize($array);
  echo "Serialized:\r\n".$serialized."\r\n";

  $unserialized = unserialize($serialized);
  echo "Unserialized:\r\n".$unserailized."\r\n";
  var_dump($unserialized);
?>

You would generate the following:

Var Dump (initial):
array(3) {
  ["id"]=>
  int(1234)
  ["email"]=>
  string(19) "example@example.com"
  ["token"]=>
  string(16) "YWJjREVGMTIzNA=="
}
Serialized:
a:3:{s:2:"id";i:1234;s:5:"email";s:19:"example@example.com";s:5:"token";s:16:"YWJjREVGMTIzNA==";}
Unserialized:

array(3) {
  ["id"]=>
  int(1234)
  ["email"]=>
  string(19) "example@example.com"
  ["token"]=>
  string(16) "YWJjREVGMTIzNA=="
}

---

EDIT2

You're seeing the encoded value based on how the HTTP protocol transfers cookies. There are two headers in a cookie transfer: Set-Cookie & Cookie. One is server->client, other other is client->server, respectfully.

When PHP sets the cookie (using setcookie e.g.) PHP is really just short-handing the following:

setcookie('login',$serialized);

which, in PHP translates to:

header('Set-Cookie: login='.urlencode($serialized).'; '
      .'expires=Wed, 12-Jan-2011 13:15:00 GMT; '
      .'path=/; domain=.mydomain.com');

If you had characters like : or a SPACE, the browser wouldn't know where the cookie's properties began and ended.