What are the best practices for using setcookie() in PHP to avoid header-related errors?

When using setcookie() in PHP, it is important to ensure that no output has been sent to the browser before calling the function, as setcookie() sends a Set-Cookie header to the browser. To avoid header-related errors, make sure to call setcookie() before any output is sent, such as HTML, whitespace, or even error messages. One way to achieve this is by using output buffering to capture any output before sending headers. 

<?php
ob_start(); // Start output buffering

// Your PHP code here

setcookie('cookie_name', 'cookie_value', time() + 3600, '/');

ob_end_flush(); // Flush output buffer and send headers
?>

Keywords

setcookie PHP header errors best practices

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