Cannot delete cookie

[JazzcatCB]

I have created a cookie in basic-html.php. The code I use is:

setcookie("webExamsTaken", implode(",", $examsTaken), time() + 60*60*24*30);

I have another PHP program called delwecookies.php where I attempt to delete this cookie. The code I use here is:

setcookie("webExamsTaken", "", time() - 3600);
echo "Cookie deleted.";

The attempt to delete the cookie in delwecookies.php is failing. Can anyone please tell me why? Thank you.

[chazzy]

quoted from a google search

There is a known problem with this, though. Although it works in most cases, there can be problems if a user's timezone is set wrongly. The safest way to completely delete a cookie is to use the following:

setcookie("UsersName", "", mktime(12,0,0,1, 1, 1990));

[bokeh]

Although the cookie WILL be deleted when you send this: setcookie("webExamsTaken", "", time() - 3600); it will still exist in the script as $_COOKIE['webExamsTaken']. If that is a problem just unset it.

unset($_COOKIE['webExamsTaken']); 

[JazzcatCB]

quoted from a google search

Thanks for that tip. I will use that from now on.

[JazzcatCB]

Although the cookie WILL be deleted when you send this: setcookie("webExamsTaken", "", time() - 3600); it will still exist in the script as $_COOKIE['webExamsTaken']. If that is a problem just unset it.

unset($_COOKIE['webExamsTaken']); 

That may be my problem. I will check it out. Thanks.

[chazzy]

yeah, it's important to note that cookies don't get saved until after the page is sent back to the browser from the server.

[bokeh]

...

Incidentally, (I'm using PHP 5.04/5.11) if I send

setcookie('name', null, time() -3600); 

the header that actually gets sent to the user is very different. Here it is:

Set-Cookie: name=deleted; expires=Wed, 22-Dec-2004 09:36:45 GMT

which is one year earlier not one hour earlier. It would seem PHP has some special built in handling when it realises a cookie is for deletion.

[chazzy]

...

are you sure your server time is correct?

[bokeh]

The server clock is fine. Also look at the cookie value. My value was null but the cookie php sent was name=deleted;