How to use setcookie() function in PHP ?

Last Updated : 16 Mar, 2022

A cookie is often a small file that is embedded by the server from which the user has visited or is getting a response. Each time the computer requests a page within a browser, it will send a cookie. Using PHP we can do both create and retrieve cookie values.

A variable is automatically created with the same name that is of the cookie. For example, if a cookie was sent with the name "client", a variable of name "client" is automatically created containing the cookie i.e $client. Cookies are sent along with the HTTP headers. Like other headers, cookies should be sent before any output from your script.

Create Cookie: The setcookie() function is used to create a cookie. The setcookie() function defines a cookie to be sent along with other HTTP headers. The setcookie() function should be appeared before the <html> and <head> tag.

Syntax:

setcookie(name, value, expire, path, domain, secure, httponly);

Parameters:

name: It is required. It specifies the name of the cookie to be sent.
value: It is optional. It specifies the value of the cookie to be sent.
expire: It is optional. It specifies when the cookie will expire. It has a default value of 0, which determines that the cookie will expire on the closing session (closing the browser).
path: It is optional. It specifies the server path of the cookie. Its default value is the current directory that the cookie is being set in.
domain: It is optional. It specifies the domain name of the cookie. For making the cookie available on all subdomains of "example.com", set it to "example.com".
secure: It is optional. It specifies whether cookies should be only transmitted over a secure HTTPS connection. The default value is "false" (cookie will set on any connection).
httponly: It is optional. If set to TRUE, the cookie will be accessible only through the HTTP protocol. Default is FALSE.

Returns:

It returns true on success.
It returns false on failure.

Example 1:

PHP

<?php
  $value = 'Arecookiesset';

  setcookie("TestCookie", $value);
  setcookie("check","are cookies set")
  ?>
  <?php
  // Print an individual cookie
  // echo $_COOKIE["TestCookie"] ."\n";
  // echo $_COOKIE["check"] ."\n";

  // Another way to debug/test is to view all cookies
  print_r($_COOKIE);
?>

Output:

Array ( [TestCookie] => Arecookiesset [check] => are cookies set )

Example 2: In this example, we are deleting the cookie name "check".