PHP Session Variables

Session variables are used store information that can be used across multiple pages on your website. A good practical example of using session variables is with a shopping cart. Data can be collected about a customer and remembered from one page to the next.

How to create a session variable

Today we are going to create a session variable on one page and retrieve the value of it on a second page.

First let's create the first page and call it page1.php. Insert the following code:

//start the session 
session_start(); 

$_SESSION["items_in_cart"] = "2"; 

The session_start() code registers the visitors's session with the server.
Make sure that you place the session_start() code at the beginning of your script.

How to retrieve a session variable

Now let's create another page and call it page2.php and insert the following code:

session_start(); 

echo "The total number of items in the cart is $_SESSION["items_in_cart"]"; 

The above code will output:
The total number of items in the cart is 2

How to destroy a session variable

To destroy a session variable simply use the unset command.



 session_start();

 //remove all the variables in the session 
 unset($_SESSION["items_in_cart"]);

 //destroy the session
 session_destroy();
 echo "The total number of items in the cart is $_SESSION["items_in_cart"]"; 

The above code will output:
value