PHP Cookie with a mind of its own - php

Question

Okay, so say we heres an example:
<?php
$hello = "no";
if ($hello == "yes"){
setcookie("hello", '1', time() + 14400, '/', false, false, false);
echo "hey";
}else{
echo "no";
}
?>
So the code above should echo "no" on the page and NOT set the cookie.
It is echoing no and setting the cookie.
How can the cookie possibly be setting without echoing hey?
Yes, we are deleting the cookie from our browser before running the page again, and its setting it each time.
Has anyone else had something like this before? It is driving me crazy. There is nothing wrong with if statements. The cookie should NOT be setting, but it is?

Answer 1

Unset the cookie before testing and make sure you've set a reasonable expiry.

Answer 2

The cookie is not set by this code. However, it may have been set previously and been stored in your browser. Use your browser's privacy mode to request the site without cookies, or cookie/developer settings to delete all existing cookies.
Another alternative to find out what is really going on is curl:
$ curl -i http://phihag.de/2011/so/cookie.php
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:13:32 GMT
Server: Apache
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Language: de
no
$ curl -i http://phihag.de/2011/so/cookie.php?givemecookie=true
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:13:41 GMT
Server: Apache
Set-Cookie: hello=1; expires=Fri, 14-Oct-2011 20:13:41 GMT; path=/
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Language: de
hey
Make sure you're editing the right code (for example by adding echo "world"; to it and observing the result). If that doesn't help, you should really give us a URL that demoes this mysterious behavior.