cookie not being set straight away - codeigniter

Question

I have a basket cookie, before adding a product to the basket the function checks to see if a cookie exists or if a new cookie is required. This works fine when adding one item at a time but there are occasions when more than one item is added at the same time. Again if an old basket cookie exists this works fine. The problem is when no basket cookie exists and the function had to create one.
The first time it goes through, the cookie is created a database record is added ect.
The second time round the function we check for the cookie no cookie is found and another cookie is created etc.
$this->db->select('basket_id');
$this->db->from($this->basket_table);
$this->db->where('basket_id', get_cookie('basket_id'));
$check_basket = $this->db->get();
if($check_basket->num_rows > 0){
$basket_exists = 1;
}else{
$basket_exists = 0;
}
if($basket_exists == 0){
delete_cookie('basket_id');
$basket = array(
'lang_id' => $lang_id,
'currency_id' => $currency_id,
'customer_id' => $customer_id,
);
$this->db->insert($this->basket_table, $basket);
$basket_id = $this->db->insert_id();;
$cookie = array(
'name' => 'basket_id',
'value' => $basket_id,
'expire' => 60*60*24*30,
'domain' => 'REMOVED'
'path' => '/',
'prefix' => '',
);
set_cookie($cookie);
}else{
$basket_id = get_cookie('basket_id');
}

Answer 1

In order to set the cookie, you need to send it to the browser, - but this never happens if your function loops multiple times before you create a view.
So set the cookie prior to them using the basket, OR only check if the cookie needs to be set once, like this:
$this->db->select('basket_id');
$this->db->from($this->basket_table);
$this->db->where('basket_id', get_cookie('basket_id'));
$check_basket = $this->db->get();
if($check_basket->num_rows > 0) {
$basket = array(
'lang_id' => $lang_id,
'currency_id' => $currency_id,
'customer_id' => $customer_id,
);
$this->db->insert($this->basket_table, $basket);
$basket_id = $this->db->insert_id();
$cookie = array(
'name' => 'basket_id',
'value' => $basket_id,
'expire' => 60*60*24*30,
'domain' => 'REMOVED'
'path' => '/',
'prefix' => '',
);
set_cookie($cookie);
}
// Now run your basket logic here - knowing the cookie is setup
}