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Creation Failure: First, web browsers typically prevent individual cookies from exceeding a specific size limit. Most modern browsers impose a size limit of approximately 4KB per cookie. If an attempt is made to set a cookie exceeding this limit, the operation will fail, meaning the cookie will not be created or saved.
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Overwriting or Discarding Existing Cookies: If the total size of cookies for a website or domain exceeds the browser's limit (which varies by browser, typically ranging from 10KB to 50KB), browsers may delete some older cookies to make space for new ones. In this case, users may unknowingly lose stored data or session information.
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Functionality Restrictions: Cookies exceeding the size limit may cause certain features of web applications to malfunction. For example, if shopping cart information is stored in a cookie and it cannot record additional items due to the size limit, the user's shopping experience may be affected.
Example
Imagine an online shopping platform where users browse products and add items to their cart. The website tracks user selections using cookies. If users add numerous items, causing the cookie size to exceed the 4KB limit, the new items may not be successfully recorded in the cookie. When users subsequently access their shopping cart, they may find that some items were not saved.
To avoid this situation, website developers need to design more efficient data storage solutions, such as:
- Using server-side storage: Store important data like the shopping cart on the server, managed via session or database, and only store a reference identifier in the cookie.
- Optimizing cookie usage: Minimize the data stored per cookie, keeping only essential information, and regularly clean up unnecessary cookie data.
By implementing these measures, website functionality can be ensured to remain unaffected by cookie size limitations, while also enhancing user data security and application reliability.