how to get cookie values by name from an array - php

Question

i have a cookie that i stored an array of values inside it. now when i try to access the information by the name of the cookies it keeps giving me the error "ILLEGAL STRING OFFSET". i dont understand what this error means in my situation.
what am i doing wrong?
why cant i access the details with the name of the cookie?
here is my code:
if (isset($_POST['save_details'])) {
if (isset($_COOKIE['historyDetails'])) {
$read_cookie=json_decode($_COOKIE['historyDetails']);
$cookieValue=$read_cookie;
}
$details['totalsalary_cookie'] = $total_salary;
if (isset($extra)) {
foreach($extra as $e){
$details=explode("#",$e);
$name=$details;
$details['extras_cookie']= $name;
}
}
$details['date_cookie']= date("d/m/y");
$details['time_cookie']= date("h:i:sa");
$cookieValue =$details;
setcookie("historyDetails", json_encode($cookieValue), $one_week);
}
echo "<ul>";
echo "<li>Salary details: Total salary is BD $total_salary";
if (count($extra_names)>0) {
echo "<li>Extras:</li>";
echo "<ol type = "."1".">";
for ($i=0; $i <count($extra_names) ; $i++) {
echo "<li>$extra_names[$i]</li>";
} echo "</ol>";
}
echo "</ul>";
die("</body></html>");
}elseif (isset($view_history)) {
//echo $_COOKIE["historyDetails"];
//print_r($_COOKIE);
?>
<table align="center" border="1">
<tr>
<th>Total Salary</th>
<th>Date</th>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Extras</th>
</tr>
<?php
if(isset($_COOKIE["historyDetails"])){
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td align=center>".$_COOKIE["historyDetails"]["totalsalary_cookie"]."</td>";
echo "<td align=center>".$_COOKIE["historyDetails"]["date_cookie"]."</td>";
echo "<td align=center>".$_COOKIE["historyDetails"]["time_cookie"]."</td>";
if(isset($_COOKIE["historyDetails"])){
echo "<td align=center>";
echo "<ul>";
$emp=explode("#",$_COOKIE["historyDetails"]["extras_cookie"]);
echo "<li>".$emp."</li>";
echo "</ul>";
echo "</td>";
}
else{
echo "<td align=center>"."No extras Found!"."</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
}
die();
}
?>
any help?

Answer 1

Without knowing the content you are trying to set in the cookie I had to improvise to test this code. In my tests the contents of the cookie were urlencoded which is why - in conjunction with the fact that the value is json encoded, I suspect, you were not able to directly access the values held within the cookie by name.
<?php
$_POST['save_details']=true;
$cname='historyDetails';
$one_week=strtotime( 'now + 1 week' );
$total_salary=mt_rand(150000,250000);
$extra=array(
'banana' => 'yellow#curvy#healty',
'snow' => 'cold#white#fun'
);
if ( isset( $_POST['save_details'] ) ) {
if( isset( $_COOKIE[ $cname ] ) ) {
$cookieValue=json_decode( $_COOKIE[ $cname ] );
}
$details['totalsalary_cookie'] = $total_salary;
if( isset( $extra ) ) {
foreach( $extra as $e ){
$details=explode("#",$e);
$name=$details;
$details['extras_cookie']= $name;
}
}
$details['date_cookie']= date("d/m/y");
$details['time_cookie']= date("h:i:sa");
$cookieValue=$details;
setcookie( $cname, json_encode( $cookieValue, JSON_HEX_APOS ), $one_week );
}
if( isset( $_COOKIE['historyDetails'] ) ){
$json=json_decode( urldecode( $_COOKIE[ $cname ] ) );
printf('<pre>%s</pre>',print_r($json,true));
}
?>
This yields a cookie string like this:
%7B%220%22%3A%22cold%22%2C%221%22%3A%22white%22%2C%222%22%3A%22fun%22%2C%22extras_cookie%22%3A%5B%22cold%22%2C%22white%22%2C%22fun%22%5D%2C%22date_cookie%22%3A%2220%5C%2F03%5C%2F21%22%2C%22time_cookie%22%3A%2201%3A10%3A27pm%22%7D
But when decoded using the code shown yields:
stdClass Object
(
[0] => cold
[1] => white
[2] => fun
[extras_cookie] => Array
(
[0] => cold
[1] => white
[2] => fun
)
[date_cookie] => 20/03/21
[time_cookie] => 01:09:25pm
)
From that you should find it is easy enough to access items from the cookie:
echo $json->extras_cookie[0], $json->date_cookie; //etc