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DOM Intro
DOM Methods
DOM Document
DOM Elements
DOM HTML
DOM CSS
DOM Animations
DOM Events
JavaScript Cookies
DOM Event Listener
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DOM Navigation
DOM Nodes
DOM Collections
Cookies let you store user information in web pages.
DOM Node Lists

JS Browser BOM
JS Window What are Cookies?
JS Screen
Cookies are data, stored in small text files, on your computer.
JS Location
JS History When a web server has sent a web page to a browser, the connection is shut down, and the server forgets everything about the user.
JS Navigator
JS Popup Alert Cookies were invented to solve the problem "how to remember information about the user":
JS Timing
When a user visits a web page, his/her name can be stored in a cookie.
JS Cookies
Next time the user visits the page, the cookie "remembers" his/her name.

JS AJAX Cookies are saved in name-value pairs like:

AJAX Intro
AJAX XMLHttp
username = John Doe
COLOR PICKER
AJAX Request

When a browser requests a web page from a server, cookies belonging to the page are added to the request. This way the server gets
the necessary data to "remember" information about users.

HOW TO
None of the examples below will work if your browser has local cookies support turned off.
Tabs
Dropdowns
Accordions
Side Navigation

Create a Cookie with JavaScript

Top Navigation
Modal Boxes
Progress Bars
JavaScript can create, read, and delete cookies with the document.cookie property. Parallax
Login Form
With JavaScript, a cookie can be created like this: HTML Includes
Google Maps
Range Sliders
document.cookie = "username=John Doe"; Tooltips
Slideshow
Filter List
Sort List
You can also add an expiry date (in UTC time). By default, the cookie is deleted when the browser is closed:

SHARE
document.cookie = "username=John Doe; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2013 12:00:00 UTC";
 
With a path parameter, you can tell the browser what path the cookie belongs to. By default, the cookie belongs to the current page. 
CERTIFICATES
document.cookie = "username=John Doe; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2013 12:00:00 UTC; path=/";
HTML
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JavaScript
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Read a Cookie with JavaScript jQuery

Bootstrap
XML
With JavaScript, cookies can be read like this:

Read More »

var x = document.cookie;

document.cookie will return all cookies in one string much like: cookie1=value; cookie2=value; cookie3=value;

Change a Cookie with JavaScript

With JavaScript, you can change a cookie the same way as you create it:

document.cookie = "username=John Smith; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2013 12:00:00 UTC; path=/";

The old cookie is overwritten.

Delete a Cookie with JavaScript

Deleting a cookie is very simple.

You don't have to specify a cookie value when you delete a cookie.

Just set the expires parameter to a passed date:

document.cookie = "username=; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 UTC; path=/;";

You should define the cookie path to ensure that you delete the right cookie.

Some browsers will not let you delete a cookie if you don't specify the path.

The Cookie String

The document.cookie property looks like a normal text string. But it is not.

Even if you write a whole cookie string to document.cookie, when you read it out again, you can only see the name-value pair of it.

If you set a new cookie, older cookies are not overwritten. The new cookie is added to document.cookie, so if you read document.cookie
again you will get something like:

cookie1 = value; cookie2 = value;

Display All Cookies Create Cookie 1 Create Cookie 2 Delete Cookie 1 Delete Cookie 2

If you want to find the value of one specified cookie, you must write a JavaScript function that searches for the cookie value in the
cookie string.

JavaScript Cookie Example

In the example to follow, we will create a cookie that stores the name of a visitor.

The first time a visitor arrives to the web page, he/she will be asked to fill in his/her name. The name is then stored in a cookie.

The next time the visitor arrives at the same page, he/she will get a welcome message.

For the example we will create 3 JavaScript functions:

1. A function to set a cookie value

2. A function to get a cookie value
3. A function to check a cookie value

A Function to Set a Cookie

First, we create a function that stores the name of the visitor in a cookie variable:

Example
function setCookie(cname, cvalue, exdays) {
var d = new Date();
d.setTime(d.getTime() + (exdays*24*60*60*1000));
var expires = "expires="+ d.toUTCString();
document.cookie = cname + "=" + cvalue + ";" + expires + ";path=/";
}

Example explained:

The parameters of the function above are the name of the cookie (cname), the value of the cookie (cvalue), and the number of days
until the cookie should expire (exdays).

The function sets a cookie by adding together the cookiename, the cookie value, and the expires string.

A Function to Get a Cookie

Then, we create a function that returns the value of a specified cookie:

Example
function getCookie(cname) {
var name = cname + "=";
var decodedCookie = decodeURIComponent(document.cookie);
var ca = decodedCookie.split(';');
for(var i = 0; i <ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') {
c = c.substring(1);
}
if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) {
return c.substring(name.length, c.length);
}
}
return "";
}

Function explained:

Take the cookiename as parameter (cname).

Create a variable (name) with the text to search for (cname + "=").

Decode the cookie string, to handle cookies with special characters, e.g. '$'

Split document.cookie on semicolons into an array called ca (ca = decodedCookie.split(';')).

Loop through the ca array (i = 0; i < ca.length; i++), and read out each value c = ca[i]).

If the cookie is found (c.indexOf(name) == 0), return the value of the cookie (c.substring(name.length, c.length).

If the cookie is not found, return "".

A Function to Check a Cookie

Last, we create the function that checks if a cookie is set.

If the cookie is set it will display a greeting.

If the cookie is not set, it will display a prompt box, asking for the name of the user, and stores the username cookie for 365 days, by
calling the setCookie function:

Example
function checkCookie() {
var username = getCookie("username");
if (username != "") {
alert("Welcome again " + username);
} else {
username = prompt("Please enter your name:", "");
if (username != "" && username != null) {
setCookie("username", username, 365);
}
}
}

All Together Now

Example
function setCookie(cname, cvalue, exdays) {
var d = new Date();
d.setTime(d.getTime() + (exdays * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
var expires = "expires="+d.toUTCString();
document.cookie = cname + "=" + cvalue + ";" + expires + ";path=/";
}

function getCookie(cname) {
var name = cname + "=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
for(var i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') {
c = c.substring(1);
}
if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) {
return c.substring(name.length, c.length);
}
}
return "";
}

function checkCookie() {
var user = getCookie("username");
if (user != "") {
alert("Welcome again " + user);
} else {
user = prompt("Please enter your name:", "");
if (user != "" && user != null) {
setCookie("username", user, 365);
}
}
}

Try it Yourself »

The example above runs the checkCookie() function when the page loads.

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