What are the benefits of using sessions or temporary files in PHP for maintaining user selections?

When maintaining user selections in PHP, using sessions or temporary files can be beneficial as they allow for the storage of data across multiple pages or requests. Sessions store data on the server side and are accessible throughout the user's browsing session, while temporary files provide a way to store data persistently between requests. This can help in maintaining user selections and preferences without the need to repeatedly pass data through URLs or hidden form fields. 

// Start a session to store user selections
session_start();

// Store user selection in session variable
$_SESSION['user_selection'] = 'value';

// Retrieve user selection from session variable
$user_selection = $_SESSION['user_selection'];

// Destroy session when no longer needed
session_destroy();

Keywords

sessions temporary files user selections PHP benefits

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