How do I set/unset a cookie with jQuery?

Question

How do I set and unset a cookie using jQuery, for example create a cookie named test and set the value to 1?

Answer 1

Make sure not to do something like this:

var a = $.cookie("cart").split(",");

Then, if the cookie doesn't exist, the debugger will return some unhelpful message like ".cookie not a function".

Always declare first, then do the split after checking for null. Like this:

var a = $.cookie("cart");
if (a != null) {
    var aa = a.split(",");

Answer 2

There is no need to use jQuery particularly to manipulate cookies.

From QuirksMode (including escaping characters)

function createCookie(name, value, days) {
    var expires;

    if (days) {
        var date = new Date();
        date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
        expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
    } else {
        expires = "";
    }
    document.cookie = encodeURIComponent(name) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(value) + expires + "; path=/";
}

function readCookie(name) {
    var nameEQ = encodeURIComponent(name) + "=";
    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, c.length);
        if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) === 0)
            return decodeURIComponent(c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length));
    }
    return null;
}

function eraseCookie(name) {
    createCookie(name, "", -1);
}

Take a look at

• How do I remove an existing class name and add a new one with jQuery and cookies?

Answer 3

$.cookie("test", 1); //set cookie
$.cookie("test"); //get cookie
$.cookie('test', null); //delete cookie

Answer 4

You can use the library on Mozilla website here

You'll be able to set and get cookies like this

docCookies.setItem(name, value);
docCookies.getItem(name);

Answer 5

Here is how you set the cookie with jQuery:

below code has been taken from https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_cookies.asp

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=/";
}

now you can get the cookie with below function:

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 "";
}

And finally this is how you check the cookie:

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);
        }
    }
}

If you want to delete the cookie just set the expires parameter to a passed date:

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

Answer 6

I thought Vignesh Pichamani's answer was the simplest and cleanest. Just adding to his the ability to set the number of days before expiration:

EDIT: also added 'never expires' option if no day number is set

        function setCookie(key, value, days) {
            var expires = new Date();
            if (days) {
                expires.setTime(expires.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
                document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';expires=' + expires.toUTCString();
            } else {
                document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';expires=Fri, 30 Dec 9999 23:59:59 GMT;';
            }
        }

        function getCookie(key) {
            var keyValue = document.cookie.match('(^|;) ?' + key + '=([^;]*)(;|$)');
            return keyValue ? keyValue[2] : null;
        }

Set the cookie:

setCookie('myData', 1, 30); // myData=1 for 30 days. 
setCookie('myData', 1); // myData=1 'forever' (until the year 9999)