PHP has some useful predefined constants, particularly PHP_INT_MAX in this case (http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.constants.php). What you should really be doing while setting the cookie is ignoring time() completely, and just set the expiration time to the maximum size of an integer.
setcookie(“name”, “val”, PHP_INT_MAX); This way, the cookie expires in 2038 for everyone, which is the furthest expiration you can set anyway. On a more theoretical note, there really isn't a need to set a cookie's expiration date beyond, let's say 5 years. For that cookie to even still be alive, you have to hope that the user: - is using the same computer for five years - has never reformatted the hard drive or re-installed a fresh OS - has never switched browsers - has never cleared their cookies I'd say a combination of all of the above is extremely rare, and I can't really think of a good use-case where a cookie would still be useful 5 years from now, given that the internet is constantly evolving. --- Jim Yi On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Margaret Waldman <mmwald...@nyc.rr.com>wrote: > I wanted to create a cookie that basically never expires. > > time() + x > > We can live to say 100 or so, so say 125 years expiration would be good. > > time() + 3944700000 > > But that number is too big. > > Intval says on a 32 bit machine max is 2147483647. > > So 2147483647 – time() = 4294967294, which is bigger than 2147483647 > > 2147483647 = 68 years but because I’m adding time it grows bigger than the > bigger integer > > But I really can only do this 2147483647 - time() = 837178076 26 years > > But php wasn’t crapping out on 290000000 + time(), so what really is the > biggest integer > > Time today = 1310305571 > Time tomorrow = 1310391971 > Next year will be = 1341863171 (42 years) > In 20 years will be = 1372420841 (52 years) > > So, 2147483647 – time in 20 year (1372420841) = 775062806 approx 23 years > > The numbers don’t look quite right but at time increases the life time you > can extend in ints decreases. > > So, instead of just adding a value to time, I should > > $newLife = 2147483647 - time(); > > setcookie(“name”, “val”, time() + newLife); > > I’m sure by the time, time() grows to be so big that this formula is an > issue, integers will be big enough to handle it? > > Anyway, does anyone know the real max size of an integer? Cause it ain’t > 2147483647 like the docs say for a 32 bit machine. > > Margaret Michele Waldman > > _______________________________________________ > New York PHP Users Group Community Talk Mailing List > http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk > > http://www.nyphp.org/Show-Participation >
_______________________________________________ New York PHP Users Group Community Talk Mailing List http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk http://www.nyphp.org/Show-Participation
