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<h1 class="refname">$_SESSION</h1>
<h1 class="refname">$HTTP_SESSION_VARS [deprecated]</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">$_SESSION</span> -- <span class="refname">$HTTP_SESSION_VARS [deprecated]</span> — <span class="dc-title">Session variables</span></p>
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<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-reserved.variables.session-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<p class="para">
An associative array containing session variables available to
the current script. See the <a href="ref.session.html" class="link">Session
functions</a> documentation for more information on how this
is used.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
<var class="varname"><var class="varname">$HTTP_SESSION_VARS</var></var> contains the same initial
information, but is not a <a href="language.variables.superglobals.html" class="link">superglobal</a>.
(Note that <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$HTTP_SESSION_VARS</var></var> and <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$_SESSION</var></var>
are different variables and that PHP handles them as such)
</p>
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<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-reserved.variables.session-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>4.1.0</td>
<td>
Introduced <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$_SESSION</var></var> that deprecated
<var class="varname"><var class="varname">$HTTP_SESSION_VARS</var></var>.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
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<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-reserved.variables.session-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <p class="para">This is a 'superglobal', or
automatic global, variable. This simply means that it is available in
all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to do
<strong class="command">global $variable;</strong> to access it within functions or methods.
</p></p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-reserved.variables.session-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.session-start.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">session_start()</a> - Start new or resume existing session</span></li>
</ul>
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