Question

This is a weird one, so bear with me. Asking you guys really is my last resort.

To be clear, I’m using Kohana 3.3, although I’m not even sure that’s related to the problem.

I’m using a cookie to track read items on a website. The cookie contains a json_encoded array. Adding to that array isn’t a problem, objects are added every time a new item is read. An item in the array contains an object with the last_view_date and a view_count For the sake of updating the view count, I need to check whether the item has been read already using array_key_exists and then add to the view count. Here’s how I’m setting the cookie:

// Get the array from the cookie.
$cookie_value = Cookie::get_array('read_items');

// Update the view_count based on whether the id exists as a key.
$view_count = (array_key_exists($item->id, $cookie_value)) ? 
                $cookie_value[$item->id]['view_count'] + 1 : 1;

// Create the item to be added to the cookie.
$cookie_item = array(
    'last_view_date' => time(),
    'view_count' => $view_count
);

// Push $cookie_item to the cookie array.
Cookie::push('read_items', $item->id, $cookie_item);

I’ve added two methods to Kohana’s Cookie class, Cookie::push and Cookie::get_array, used in the code above:

class Cookie extends Kohana_Cookie {

    public static function push($cookie_name, $key, $value)
    {
        $cookie_value = parent::get($cookie_name);

        // Add an empty array to the cookie if it doesn't exist.
        if(!$cookie_value)
        {
            parent::set($cookie_name, json_encode(array()));
        }
        else
        {
            $cookie_value = (array)json_decode($cookie_value);

            // If $value isn't set, append without key.
            if(isset($value))
            {
                $cookie_value[$key] = $value;
            }
            else
            {
                $cookie_value[] = $key;
            }
            Cookie::set($cookie_name, json_encode($cookie_value));
        }
    }

    public static function get_array($cookie_name)
    {
        return (array)json_decode(parent::get($cookie_name));
    }
}

Now, here’s my problem. Running a var_dump on $cookie_value outputs the following:

array(1) {
  ["37"]=>
  object(stdClass)#43 (2) {
    ["last_view_date"]=>
    int(1359563215)
    ["view_count"]=>
    int(1)
  }
}

But when I try to access $cookie_value[37], I can’t:

var_dump(array_key_exists(37, $cookie_value));
// Outputs bool(false);

var_dump(is_array($cookie_value));
// Outputs bool(true);

var_dump(count($cookie_value));
// Outputs int(1);

var_dump(array_keys($cookie_value));
// Outputs:
// array(1) {
//   [0]=>
//   string(2) "37"
// }

Added debugging code:

var_dump(isset($cookie_value["37"]));
// Outputs bool(false).

var_dump(isset($cookie_value[37]));
// Outputs bool(false).

var_dump(isset($cookie_value[(string)37]));
// Outputs bool(false).

I hope it’s clear enough.

Answer 1

Take a look at json_decode. Currently, you’re casting the result to an array. If you pass true as the second parameter to json_decode, you’ll get an array back instead of a stdObject.

The problem may also be related to you checking int vs string keys. You could test by running this code on your server:

<?php  

$one = array("37" => "test");
$two = array(37 => "test");

var_dump(array_key_exists(37,$one)); // true or false?
var_dump(array_key_exists(37,$two)); // true

?>