Laravel Store Array in Session

Question

I have been having trouble storing an array in session. I am making a shopping cart and it doesn't seem to work.

public function __construct(){

  $product = array(1,2,3,4);
  Session::push('cart', $product);

}

and then retrieve it in the view like this.

{{Session::get('cart')}}

However I keep getting an error like this.

htmlentities() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given

Any clues and advice on how to create a shopping cart that stores an array of items.

Answer 1

If you need to use the array from session as a string, you need to use Collection like this:

$product = collect([1,2,3,4]);
Session::push('cart', $product);

This will make it work when you will be using {{Session::get('cart');}} in your htmls. Be aware of Session::push because it will append always the new products in sessions. You should be using Session::put to be sure the products will be always updating.

Answer 2

You're storing an array in the session, and since {{ }} expects a string, you can't use {{Session::get('cart')}} to display the value.

The {{ $var }} is the same as writing echo htmlentities($var) (a very simple example).

Instead, you could do something like:

@foreach (Session::get('cart') as $product_id)
    {{$product_id}}
@endforeach

Answer 3

If you use 'push', when initially creating the array in the session, then the array will look like this:

[
    0 => [1,2,3,4]
]

Instead you should use 'put':

$products = [1,2,3,4];
$request->session()->put('cart', $products);

Any subsequent values should be pushed onto the session array:

$request->session()->push('cart', 5);

Answer 4

You can use .:

$product = array(1,2,3,4);
Session::put('cart.product',$product);