How to Set Cookies in PHP

In this tutorial, we will see how to set a cookie, how to retrieve a cookie, how to update a cookie, and how to delete a cookie in PHP.

Set and retrieve a cookie in php

To set a cookie in PHP, use the code below:

<?php
    $name = "current_user";
    $value = "John Doe";
    setcookie($name, $value, time() + (3600 * 10), "/");// 3600 * 10 = 10 hours
?>
<html>
    <body>
        <?php
            if(isset($_COOKIE[$name])) {
                echo "Name: " . $name . "<br>";
                echo "Value: " . $_COOKIE[$name];
            }else{
                echo "Cookie not set yet";
            }
        ?>
    </body>
</html>

Update a cookie in php

To update a cookie in PHP, we use the same code just change the value:

<?php
    $name = "current_user";
    $value = "Jack Jock";
    setcookie($name, $value, time() + (3600 * 10), "/");// 3600 * 10 = 10 hours
?>
<html>
    <body>
        <?php
            if(isset($_COOKIE[$name])) {
                echo "Name: " . $name . "<br>";
                echo "Value: " . $_COOKIE[$name];
            }else{
                echo "Cookie not set yet";
            }
        ?>
    </body>
</html>

Delete a cookie in php

To delete a cookie, we set the expiration date to one hour ago: 

<?php
    setcookie("current_user", "", time() - 3600);
?>
<html>
    <body>
        <?php
            echo "Cookie is deleted.";
        ?>
    </body>
</html>