stupid cookie question

[Anon]

I am a newcomer to cookies and would like to know the following:

If I set the cookie like this:

setcookie("string-$var",$var,time( +500000,"/","www.host.ee",0);

How can I check that the cookie is still there and valid?

TIA,
Kristjan

[Anon]

if a cookie is exist and valid there's a variable defined in your php namespace. so if you set a cookie like cookie-$var you can check it with isset(cookie-$var). if you wanna make sure that it's a cookie variable you can check $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS[cookie-$var] also!

[[deleted]]

Your line seems to have a typo

setcookie("string-$var",$var,time( +500000,"/","www.host.ee",0);

the time(+500000 shoule be time()+500000

Assuming you have register globals turned on in you php.ini the system will register your cookie variable name in 2 places

1. as just a variable called 'string-$var'
   Any other variables of the same name submitted through post, get, session data overwrite yours or get overwritten by you cookie value depending on the order that you have defines in the php.ini parameter
   variables_order = "GPCS" means variables get registered from left to right. The right overwritting your left. GET, POST, COOKIE, SESSION
   So if you had a session variable that was called the same as you cookie variable, your cookie would bet overwritten by it.

2. in an array which you can access like this HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['string-$var']
   If you write your script to access this array things are a little safer and you know what you are getting.

3. no matter if the register_globals parameter is on or off php.ini the $COOKIE array is ALWAY availabe for you to access.
   I think it's best to use it as then your script is independant of a servers php.ini settings. Watch out though as this $COOKIE array has some special global properties that you might not know about.

CIAO