Read a javascript cookie by name

Question

I have set a cookie using

document.cookie = 
    \'MYBIGCOOKIE=\' + value + 
    \'; expires=\' + now.toGMTString() + 
    \'; path=/\';

No

Answer 1

Unfortunately, Javascript's cookie syntax is nowhere near as nice as that. In fact, in my opinion, it's one of the worst designed parts.

When you try to read document.cookie, you get a string containing all the cookies set. You have to parse the string, separating by the semicolon ; character. Rather than writing this yourself, there are plenty of versions available on the web. My favourite is the one at quirksmode.org. This gives you createCookie, readCookie and deleteCookie functions.