What are the advantages and disadvantages of storing data in a session versus a database or file in PHP?

Storing data in a session in PHP is advantageous because it allows for easy access to the data across multiple pages during a user's session. However, sessions can be less secure than storing data in a database or file, as they are stored on the server and can be vulnerable to session hijacking. Additionally, storing large amounts of data in a session can impact server performance. 

// Storing data in a session
session_start();
$_SESSION['user_id'] = 123;
```

```php
// Storing data in a database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
  die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Insert data into database
$sql = "INSERT INTO users (user_id) VALUES (123)";
$conn->query($sql);
$conn->close();
```

```php
// Storing data in a file
$file = 'data.txt';
$data = "123";

file_put_contents($file, $data);

Keywords

session database file advantages disadvantages

Related Questions