(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
session_encode — Encodes the current session data as a session encoded string
session_encode() returns a serialized string of the contents of the current session data stored in the $_SESSION superglobal.
By default, the serialization method used is internal to PHP, and is not the same as serialize(). The serialization method can be set using session.serialize_handler.
This function has no parameters.
Returns the contents of the current session encoded, or false on failure.
Must call session_start() before using session_encode().
session_encode() just return the session dataset in a formatted form
session_start();
$_SESSION['login_ok'] = true;
$_SESSION['nome'] = 'sica';
$_SESSION['inteiro'] = 34;
echo session_encode();
this code will print
login_ok|b:1;nome|s:4:"sica";inteiro|i:34;session_encode() can't handle pipes in your keys.
<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION = ['foo|bar'=>'ba;z']; pathetic
dump(session_encode()); // false because "foo|bar" contains a pipe
?>The session_encode and session_decode functions are incomplete.
Because there is no option to collect the output values for session_decode or input an array in session_encode.
I faced this issue while trying to implement custom session using session_set_save_handler.
It led me to limit the functionality to particular serialize_handler and had to hardcode the encode and decode functions like serialize and unserialize for option ['serialize_handler' => 'php_serialize'] instead of session_encode and session_decode once i am done with defining the encoding algo.