I'm think this has been answered before...but anyway, if you want to encrypt/decrypt data, you can't use SHA256
//Key
$key = 'SuperSecretKey';
//To Encrypt:
$encrypted = mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, 'I want to encrypt this', MCRYPT_MODE_ECB);
//To Decrypt:
$decrypted = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, $encrypted, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB);