Difference between HttpResponse: SetCookie, AppendCookie, Cookies.Add

Question

there are some different ways to create multi value cookies in ASP.NET:

var cookie = new HttpCookie("MyCookie"); cookie["Information 1"] = "value 1"; cookie["Information 2"] = "value 2";  // first way Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);  // second way Response.AppendCookie(cookie);  // third way Response.SetCookie(cookie); 

When should I use which way? I've read that SetCookie method updates the cookie, if it already exits. Doesn't the other ways update the existing cookie as well?

And is the following code best practice for writing single value cookies?

Response.Cookies["MyCookie"].Value = "value";

Answer 1

If I remember correctly both

Response.Cookies.Add(..) 

and

Response.AppendCookie(..) 

will allow multiple cookies of the same name to be appended to the response.

On the other hand

Response.SetCookie(..) 

and

Response.Cookies[key].Value = value; 

will always overwrite previous cookies of the same name.