How to email $_SESSION variables - php

Question

I'm have a function which shows the user which products he has added to his cart. In this function I simply echo all the $_SESSION data. The problem is that I want to email all the $_SESSION data. I can't store the function in a variable and simple use $message = $function because in the email I get nothing is being displayed. So my question is: what's the easiest way to email $_SESSION data?
I use this code to display all sessions in a php file:
function cart_summary() {
foreach($_SESSION as $name => $value) {
if ($value>0) {
if (substr($name, 0, 5)=='cart_') {
$id = substr($name, 5, (strlen($name)-5));
$id2 = mysql_real_escape_string((int)$id);
$get_colour_size_category = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE id='$id2'";
$result_colour_size_category = mysql_query($get_colour_size_category);
while ($get_colour_size_category_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_colour_size_category)) {
$get_webshop_category = $get_colour_size_category_row['webshop_category'];
$get_webshop_category2 = mysql_real_escape_string((int)$get_webshop_category);
$get_name_and_price = "SELECT * FROM webshop_categories WHERE id='$get_webshop_category2'";
$result_name_and_price = mysql_query($get_name_and_price);
$row_name_and_price = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_name_and_price);
$sub = $row_name_and_price['price'] *$value;
echo '<tr><td>'. $row_name_and_price['ev_name'] .' '. $get_colour_size_category_row['colour'].' '. $get_colour_size_category_row['size'].'</td><td class="value"> '. $value .' </td><td> €'.number_format($row_name_and_price['price'], 2).'</td><td> €'.number_format($sub, 2).'</td><td></td></tr>';
}
?><?
}
$total += $sub;
}
}
I want to email the output of this

Answer 1

The easiest way would be to store the output of your $_SESSION array using print_r() (by using the optional parameter to return the information, rather than print it):
$session_data = print_r($_SESSION, TRUE);
Now it is a string containing all the session data and you can use it however you wish.

Answer 2

Managed to put the $_SESSION data in an email by doing the following:
function cart_summary() {
$message = "";
foreach($_SESSION as $name => $value) {
if ($value>0) {
if (substr($name, 0, 5)=='cart_') {
$id = substr($name, 5, (strlen($name)-5));
$id2 = mysql_real_escape_string((int)$id);
$get_colour_size_category = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE id='$id2'";
$result_colour_size_category = mysql_query($get_colour_size_category);
while ($get_colour_size_category_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_colour_size_category)) {
$get_webshop_category = $get_colour_size_category_row['webshop_category'];
$get_webshop_category2 = mysql_real_escape_string((int)$get_webshop_category);
$get_name_and_price = "SELECT * FROM webshop_categories WHERE id='$get_webshop_category2'";
$result_name_and_price = mysql_query($get_name_and_price);
$row_name_and_price = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_name_and_price);
$sub = $row_name_and_price['price'] *$value;
$message .= '<tr><td>'. $row_name_and_price['ev_name'] .' '. $get_colour_size_category_row['colour'].' '. $get_colour_size_category_row['size'].'</td><td class="value"> '. $value .' </td><td> €'.number_format($row_name_and_price['price'], 2).'</td><td> €'.number_format($sub, 2).'</td><td></td></tr>';
}
?><?
}
$total += $sub;
}
return $message
}
After I did this I was able to email the output of the function with
$message .= cart_email() . "\n";