How do I create and read a value from cookie?

Question

How can I create and read a value from a cookie in JavaScript?

Answer 1

For those who need save objects like {foo: 'bar'}, I share my edited version of @KevinBurke's answer. I've added JSON.stringify and JSON.parse, that's all.

cookie = {

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

    get : function(name){
        var nameEQ = name + "=",
            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  JSON.parse(c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length));
        }

        return null;
    }

}

So, now you can do things like this:

cookie.set('cookie_key', {foo: 'bar'}, 30);

cookie.get('cookie_key'); // {foo: 'bar'}

cookie.set('cookie_key', 'baz', 30);

cookie.get('cookie_key'); // 'baz'