Happy Coders

Cookies in PHP are small files stored on the user’s browser to remember information between different page requests. They are typically used for:

• User login sessions
• Remembering user preferences
• Tracking user activity

How Cookies Work:

1. The server sends a cookie using PHP.

2. The browser stores it.

3. On every subsequent request, the browser sends the cookie back to the server.

How to Set a Cookie in PHP:

login.php

// Set a cookie
setcookie("user", "John", time() + 3600); // valid for 1 hour

• user = Cookie name
• "John" = Cookie value
• time() + 3600 = Expiration time (current time + 1 hour)

How to Retrieve a Cookie:

echo $_COOKIE['user']; // Outputs: John

setcookie("user", "", time() - 3600); // Set expiration time to the past