Can't set PHP cookie on the same page

Question

I'm having trouble setting cookies on the same page. I used cookies on my site and it works fine, I tend to set make the php in separate file. Now, I'm setting a cookie on the same page but it doesn't seem to work.

$expire = time()+5;
setcookie("rb_vote", 1, $expire);

then check if it is set

if(isset($_COOKIE["rb_vote"]))  {
echo "IS SET";}
else {
echo "IS NOT SET"; }

It always says is not set. I tried doing this in page load but still doesn't work.

Answer 1

See the manual on setcookie() (emphasis mine):

Once the cookies have been set, they can be accessed on the next page load with the $_COOKIE or $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS arrays. Note, superglobals such as $_COOKIE became available in PHP 4.1.0. Cookie values also exist in $_REQUEST

Here is a workaround suggestion. It's imperfect because it can't guarantee the cookie actually gets set, but might do in your case.