The Contents of Session Files

   

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You can view the actual contents of session variables by looking in the directory specified in the session.save_path setting in your php.ini file. In that directory, you should see a file named something along the lines of "sess_c4a9722c1745304544dc5cc1 b3e08996." The important part is that the file name begins with "sess_." The random string of characters after that is the unique identifier that PHP assigns to each session. If you are on a shared site or you have run any sessions in the past, then there may be several files that look like PHP session files. Try to find the one with the timestamp closest to when you accessed the example, but opening any of the files will give you an idea of how the session variables are stored. Opening the file in a text editor displays the following:

 count|i:6;  

The actual number displayed in the file will be different, depending on how many times you reloaded the page. The contents of the file display the variable name, followed by a pipe symbol, followed by the variable type identifier in this case "i" for integer and finally the value of the variable followed by a semicolon. If you have multiple variables registered in the session, then they would be listed in the order they were registered, separated in most cases by semicolons. For example, if you had two integer variables registered in the session, $count and $day, then they would appear as follows:

 count|i:6;day|i:7;  

Table 2-1 details some of the common variable types you might see in a typical session. file.

Table 2-1. Variable Type Identifiers in Session Files

SYMBOL	VARIABLE TYPE
i	Integer
s	String
b	Boolean
d	Float
a	Array
O	Object
N	NULL

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