How can serialized arrays be used to store and retrieve shopping cart data in PHP?

Serialized arrays can be used to store shopping cart data in PHP by converting the array data into a string using the serialize() function before storing it in a session variable. When retrieving the data, you can use the unserialize() function to convert the serialized string back into an array. This allows you to easily store and retrieve complex data structures like shopping cart items in PHP. 

// Storing shopping cart data
$cart = array(
    'item1' => array('name' => 'Product 1', 'price' => 10),
    'item2' => array('name' => 'Product 2', 'price' => 20)
);

$serialized_cart = serialize($cart);
$_SESSION['cart'] = $serialized_cart;

// Retrieving shopping cart data
$serialized_cart = $_SESSION['cart'];
$cart = unserialize($serialized_cart);

// Accessing cart items
foreach ($cart as $item) {
    echo $item['name'] . ': $' . $item['price'] . '<br>';
}

Keywords

serialized arrays shopping cart data PHP store data retrieve data

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