= Problem =

You wish to check if the user has any cookies set from previous interactions with your application.

= Solution =

To retrieve a cookie with a given name, use the `HTTPRequest.get_cookie()` method.

{{{
     login_time = request.get_cookie('login_time')
}}}

`get_cookie()` returns a string containing the cookie's value; if no such cookie exists, `get_cookie()` returns None. 
You can also specify a different default value:

{{{
    login_time = int(request.get_cookie('login_time', time.time()))
}}}


= Discussion =

See CookieSecurity for a discussion of security considerations related to cookies.

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CategoryCookbook