Achieving Cookie Reading Conciseness in JavaScript

The need to access cookies arises frequently in JavaScript programming, often requiring the inclusion of a function for this purpose. While the readCookie() method from QuirksMode.org has been a popular fallback, it is both lengthy and cumbersome.

A more compact and efficient alternative is the approach employed by jQuery.cookie, which leverages regular expressions to extract the desired cookie value. However, even this method can be further improved upon.

Introducing the Best-of-the-Best Function

The following function offers superior performance and reliability compared to previous methods:

const getCookieValue = (name) => (
  document.cookie.match('(^|;)\\s*'   name   '\\s*=\\s*([^;] )')?.pop() || ''
);

Key Advantages:

• Conciseness: The function is remarkably concise, minimizing its impact on code readability and overall file size.
• Reliability: It meticulously adheres to the official RFC 2109 specifications for cookies, ensuring accurate and consistent functionality across browsers.
• Performance: Extensive benchmarking proves that this function surpasses the performance of all other tested approaches, including the jQuery.cookie method.

Performance Comparison:

A head-to-head comparison against other popular functions showcases the superiority of this approach: https://jsben.ch/AhMN6.

Conclusion

In pursuit of a more efficient and effective cookie reading function in JavaScript, we have presented a solution that outperforms and outperforms existing methods. Its concise design, unwavering reliability, and unmatched performance make it the clear choice for any project.