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

Update April 2019

jQuery isn't needed for cookie reading/manipulation, so don't use the original answer below.

Go to https://github.com/js-cookie/js-cookie instead, and use the library there that doesn't depend on jQuery.

Basic examples:

// Set a cookie
Cookies.set('name', 'value');

// Read the cookie
Cookies.get('name') => // => 'value'

See the docs on github for details.

---

Before April 2019 (old)

See the plugin:

https://github.com/carhartl/jquery-cookie

You can then do:

$.cookie("test", 1);

To delete:

$.removeCookie("test");

Additionally, to set a timeout of a certain number of days (10 here) on the cookie:

$.cookie("test", 1, { expires : 10 });

If the expires option is omitted, then the cookie becomes a session cookie and is deleted when the browser exits.

To cover all the options:

$.cookie("test", 1, {
   expires : 10,           // Expires in 10 days

   path    : '/',          // The value of the path attribute of the cookie
                           // (Default: path of page that created the cookie).

   domain  : 'jquery.com', // The value of the domain attribute of the cookie
                           // (Default: domain of page that created the cookie).

   secure  : true          // If set to true the secure attribute of the cookie
                           // will be set and the cookie transmission will
                           // require a secure protocol (defaults to false).
});

To read back the value of the cookie:

var cookieValue = $.cookie("test");

You may wish to specify the path parameter if the cookie was created on a different path to the current one:

var cookieValue = $.cookie("test", { path: '/foo' });

UPDATE (April 2015):

As stated in the comments below, the team that worked on the original plugin has removed the jQuery dependency in a new project (https://github.com/js-cookie/js-cookie) which has the same functionality and general syntax as the jQuery version. Apparently the original plugin isn't going anywhere though.

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

<script type="text/javascript">
    function setCookie(key, value, expiry) {
        var expires = new Date();
        expires.setTime(expires.getTime() + (expiry * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
        document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';expires=' + expires.toUTCString();
    }

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

    function eraseCookie(key) {
        var keyValue = getCookie(key);
        setCookie(key, keyValue, '-1');
    }

</script>

You can set the cookies as like

setCookie('test','1','1'); //(key,value,expiry in days)

You can get the cookies as like

getCookie('test');

And finally you can erase the cookies like this one

eraseCookie('test');

Hope it will helps to someone :)

EDIT:

If you want to set the cookie to all the path/page/directory then set path attribute to the cookie

function setCookie(key, value, expiry) {
        var expires = new Date();
        expires.setTime(expires.getTime() + (expiry * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
        document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';path=/' + ';expires=' + expires.toUTCString();
}

Thanks, vicky

Answer 4

You can use a plugin available here..

https://plugins.jquery.com/cookie/

and then to write a cookie do $.cookie("test", 1);

to access the set cookie do $.cookie("test");

Answer 5

Here is my global module I use -

var Cookie = {   

   Create: function (name, value, days) {

       var expires = "";

        if (days) {
           var date = new Date();
           date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
           expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
       }

       document.cookie = name + "=" + value + expires + "; path=/";
   },

   Read: function (name) {

        var nameEQ = 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 c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length);
        }

        return null;
    },

    Erase: function (name) {

        Cookie.create(name, "", -1);
    }

};

Answer 6

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 7

Here is how you set the cookie with JavaScript:

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 8

A simple example of set cookie in your browser:

<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <title>jquery.cookie Test Suite</title>

        <script src="jquery-1.9.0.min.js"></script>
        <script src="jquery.cookie.js"></script>
        <script src="JSON-js-master/json.js"></script>
        <script src="JSON-js-master/json_parse.js"></script>
        <script>
            $(function() {

               if ($.cookie('cookieStore')) {
                    var data=JSON.parse($.cookie("cookieStore"));
                    $('#name').text(data[0]);
                    $('#address').text(data[1]);
              }

              $('#submit').on('click', function(){

                    var storeData = new Array();
                    storeData[0] = $('#inputName').val();
                    storeData[1] = $('#inputAddress').val();

                    $.cookie("cookieStore", JSON.stringify(storeData));
                    var data=JSON.parse($.cookie("cookieStore"));
                    $('#name').text(data[0]);
                    $('#address').text(data[1]);
              });
            });

       </script>
    </head>
    <body>
            <label for="inputName">Name</label>
            <br /> 
            <input type="text" id="inputName">
            <br />      
            <br /> 
            <label for="inputAddress">Address</label>
            <br /> 
            <input type="text" id="inputAddress">
            <br />      
            <br />   
            <input type="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" />
            <hr>    
            <p id="name"></p>
            <br />      
            <p id="address"></p>
            <br />
            <hr>  
     </body>
</html>

Simple just copy/paste and use this code for set your cookie.

Answer 9

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 10

I think Fresher gave us nice way, but there is a mistake:

    <script type="text/javascript">
        function setCookie(key, value) {
            var expires = new Date();
            expires.setTime(expires.getTime() + (value * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
            document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';expires=' + expires.toUTCString();
        }

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

You should add "value" near getTime(); otherwise the cookie will expire immediately :)

Answer 11

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) 

Answer 12

I know there are many great answers. Often, I only need to read cookies and I do not want to create overhead by loading additional libraries or defining functions.

Here is how to read cookies in one line of javascript. I found the answer in Guilherme Rodrigues' blog article:

('; '+document.cookie).split('; '+key+'=').pop().split(';').shift()

This reads the cookie named key, nice, clean and simple.

Answer 13

Try (doc here, SO snippet not works so run this one)

document.cookie = "test=1"             // set
document.cookie = "test=1;max-age=0"   // unset

Answer 14

The following code will remove all cookies within the current domain and all trailing subdomains (www.some.sub.domain.com, .some.sub.domain.com, .sub.domain.com and so on.).

A single line vanilla JS version (no need for jQuery):

document.cookie.replace(/(?<=^|;).+?(?=\=|;|$)/g, name => location.hostname.split('.').reverse().reduce(domain => (domain=domain.replace(/^\.?[^.]+/, ''),document.cookie=`${name}=;max-age=0;path=/;domain=${domain}`,domain), location.hostname));

This is a readable version of this single line:

document.cookie.replace(
  /(?<=^|;).+?(?=\=|;|$)/g, 
  name => location.hostname
    .split(/\.(?=[^\.]+\.)/)
    .reduceRight((acc, val, i, arr) => i ? arr[i]='.'+val+acc : (arr[i]='', arr), '')
    .map(domain => document.cookie=`${name}=;max-age=0;path=/;domain=${domain}`)
);

Answer 15

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