#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI qw/:standard/;
use strict;
use warnings;

#Place the user's existing cookie in a hash, if they have one
my %userPrefs = cookie('prefs');

#set the user

$userPrefs{user} = 'user1'; # No need to double-quote this string

# let's set some timestamps for fun

$userPrefs{accessed_last} = $userPrefs{accessed};
$userPrefs{accessed} = scalar localtime;

# Now we get a new cookie object

my $cookie = cookie(
       -name    => 'prefs',
       -value   => \%userPrefs,
       -expires => '+1h',
   );

# and pass it to the browser

print header(-cookie=> $cookie);

# and let's print the latest cookie info

print map {"$_ : $userPrefs{$_}<br>"} sort keys %userPrefs;