How to handle multiple session variables in ASP .Net? - asp.net

Question

As a part of online shopping, I implemented a cart using Session.
I have implemented the Cart in the following manner :
Session[pname] = qty;
where pname is a string variable which holds the name of the product and I used that as the key. qty is an integer variable which holds the number of items of that particular product.
To display the cart items I simply used the following loop :
foreach(string keys in Session.Keys)
Through this I get the names of the products along with the associated quantity and using this I display the cart items. The problem arises when I also have a session for the user active on the same page.
Session["uname"] = user_name;
And while retrieving the keys using Session.Keys, the uname gets included which I don't want as I need only the product's names. Is there any way I can read the keys from Session[pname] without reading from Session["uname"]?

Answer 1

Instead of storing an object in session for each product and quantity, just store a single object (e.g. List) which contains all of your cart items.
Here is an example which you could tweak to meet your needs:
First, a simple object to store the data:
public class CartItem {
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Quantity { get; set; }
}
Then if you need to add an object to the cart list:
var cartItems = new List<CartItem>();
cartItems.Add(new CartItem() {
Name = "",
Quantity = 1
});
Session["Cart"] = cartItems;
//Need to fetch the cart items later on?
cartItems = (List<CartItem>)Session["Cart"];
Obviously this can be implemented differently and this was just a quick example.

Answer 2

You mentioned needing an easier fix than what Justin Helgerson said, so here's a couple of suggestions, but they feel a little quick and dirty. Justin's is probably the superior solution. I used a quick Console app to demonstrate this, so place your constants where they belong, and you obviously don't have to create a dictionary.
const string USERSESSION = "uname";
Dictionary<string, object> session = new Dictionary<string, object>();
session["item1"] = 2;
session["item2"] = 1;
session[USERSESSION] = "StackOverflowUser";
// print cart items - minus the user name session key
foreach (string key in session.Keys.Where(s => s != USERSESSION))
{
Console.WriteLine("Key: {0} Value: {1}", key, session[key]);
}
Alternatively, if you plan on there being more keys than just "uname", use the Linq Except method.
// build up except set
List<string> exceptKeys = new List<string>
{
USERSESSION
};
foreach (string key in session.Keys.Except(exceptKeys))
{
Console.WriteLine("Key: {0} Value: {1}", key, session[key]);
}