How do you set a php cookie with multiple values?

Question

I want to create a php cookie that stores the username and the userid. Or is it better to just use one to get the other?

Answer 1

You can use an array for example

 'value1',
  'name2' => 'value2',
  'name3' => 'value3'
);

// build the cookie from an array into
// one single string
function build_cookie($var_array) {
  $out = '';
  if (is_array($var_array)) {
    foreach ($var_array as $index => $data) {
      $out .= ($data != "") ? $index . "=" . $data . "|" : "";
    }
  }
  return rtrim($out, "|");
}

// make the func to break the cookie
// down into an array
function break_cookie($cookie_string) {
  $array = explode("|", $cookie_string);
  foreach ($array as $i => $stuff) {
    $stuff = explode("=", $stuff);
    $array[$stuff[0]] = $stuff[1];
    unset($array[$i]);
  }
  return $array;
}

// then set the cookie once the array 
// has been through build_cookie func
$cookie_value = build_cookie($array);
setcookie('cookie_name', $cookie_value, time() + (86400 * 30), "/");

// get array from cookie by using the
// break_cookie func
if (isset($_COOKIE['cookie_name'])) {
  $new_array = break_cookie($_COOKIE['cookie_name']);
  var_dump($new_array);
}

?>

Hope this answer help you out