PHP 7.0.6 Released

$_COOKIE

$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS [deprecated]

(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)

$_COOKIE -- $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS [deprecated]HTTP Cookies

Description

An associative array of variables passed to the current script via HTTP Cookies.

$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS contains the same initial information, but is not a superglobal. (Note that $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS and $_COOKIE are different variables and that PHP handles them as such)

Changelog

Version Description
4.1.0 Introduced $_COOKIE that deprecated $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS.

Examples

Example #1 $_COOKIE example

<?php
echo 'Hello ' htmlspecialchars($_COOKIE["name"]) . '!';
?>

Assuming the "name" cookie has been set earlier

The above example will output something similar to:

Hello Hannes!

Notes

Note:

This is a 'superglobal', or automatic global, variable. This simply means that it is available in all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to do global $variable; to access it within functions or methods.

User Contributed Notes

k dot andris at gmail dot com
11 months ago
beware, dots (.) in cookie names are replaces by underscores (_)
Chris Watson
6 years ago
The value of $_COOKIE is determined by the content of cookies received in the user agent's request.

If you set a cookie (ie send it to the browser), it won't be sent back until the next request and so the data won't be present in $_COOKIE.
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