<p>I am using prototype and I can't find any built in extensions to set or retrieve cookies. After googling for a little bit, I see a few different ways to go about it. I was wondering what you think is the best approach for getting a cookie in JavaScript?</p>

I use this. It has been dependable:
```
```
function getCookie(c_name) {
if (document.cookie.length>0)
  {
  c_start=document.cookie.indexOf(c_name + "=")
  if (c_start!=-1)
    { 
    c_start=c_start + c_name.length+1 
    c_end=document.cookie.indexOf(";",c_start)
    if (c_end==-1) c_end=document.cookie.length
    return unescape(document.cookie.substring(c_start,c_end))
    } 
  }
return ""
```
```
}