JS how to cache a variable

Question

What I want to do is to be able to create a variable, give it a value, close and reopen the window, and be able to retrieve the value I set in the last session. What is the simplest way to do that? JQuery answers are welcome.

Answer 1

Use localStorage for that. It's persistent over sessions.

Writing :

localStorage['myKey'] = 'somestring'; // only strings 

Reading :

var myVar = localStorage['myKey'] || 'defaultValue'; 

If you need to store complex structures, you might serialize them in JSON. For example :

Reading :

var stored = localStorage['myKey']; if (stored) myVar = JSON.parse(stored); else myVar = {a:'test', b: [1, 2, 3]}; 

Writing :

localStorage['myKey'] = JSON.stringify(myVar); 

Note that you may use more than one key. They'll all be retrieved by all pages on the same domain.

Unless you want to be compatible with IE7, you have no reason to use the obsolete and small cookies.