If ... else that does not work

[Joe Blow]

I'm sure I'm missing something blindingly obvious here. I am relatively new
to PHP, so excuse dumb mistakes.

I a trying to check a form submitted from an earlier page, and check $_POST
for empty values. Only some of them are not allowed to be empty, hence the
rather lengthy way in which the script is written. If no required fields are
empty, then I want another part of the script to function, and the variables
to be sent to a database. Easy eh? I thought I should be able to simply use
a big 'if ... else' statement. The PHP is at the bottom.

What happens in practice is that PHP is interpreting the first if statement
as always true, even when the $_POST variables are not == "", and the 'else'
part of the PHP never fires. Can anybody spot the idiot mistake I am making?

I have obviously omitted some PHP for ease of reading, but nothing which
should effect the program.

if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] or
$_POST['first_name'] or $_POST['last_name'] or $_POST['address_street '] ==
"")
{
echo "<table width=\"500\" align=\"center\ " bgcolor=\"white \"><tr><td>\ n
<form target=\"checkb lank.php\" method=\"post\" >";
if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] == "")
{
echo "part of a form";
}
if ($_POST ['subscription_t ype'] == "")
{
echo "another part of a form";
}
if ($_POST ['first_name'] == "")
{
echo "another part of a form";
}
if ($_POST ['last_name'] == "")
{
echo "another part of a form";
}
if ($_POST ['address_street '] == "")
/*open 2ndary if clause*/
{
echo "another part of a form";
}
echo "<input type=\"reset\" value=\"Reset\" >&nbsp;<input type=\"submit\"
value=\"Submit\ ">\n";
}

else
{
/*submit all the details to MySQL database*/
}
Many thanks for advice

JB

[IWP506@gmail.com]

Re: If ... else that does not work

I'm pretty new to PHP myself, and I'm not totally sure what your
problem is, but I'll take a stab at it.... my guess is that your
statement:

if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] or
$_POST['first_name'] or $_POST['last_name'] or $_POST['address_street ']
==
"")

should be

if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] == ""
or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] =="" or
$_POST['first_name'] =="" or .......

I'm thinking maybe it's only checking if the last one is == to "" and
evaluating the others as boolean statements?

This is probably totally wrong, so feel free to disregard all of it.
:)

PulsarSL

[Chris Hope]

Re: If ... else that does not work

Joe Blow wrote:
[color=blue]
> I'm sure I'm missing something blindingly obvious here. I am
> relatively new to PHP, so excuse dumb mistakes.
>
> I a trying to check a form submitted from an earlier page, and check
> $_POST for empty values. Only some of them are not allowed to be
> empty, hence the rather lengthy way in which the script is written. If
> no required fields are empty, then I want another part of the script
> to function, and the variables to be sent to a database. Easy eh? I
> thought I should be able to simply use a big 'if ... else' statement.
> The PHP is at the bottom.
>
> What happens in practice is that PHP is interpreting the first if
> statement as always true, even when the $_POST variables are not ==
> "", and the 'else' part of the PHP never fires. Can anybody spot the
> idiot mistake I am making?
>
> I have obviously omitted some PHP for ease of reading, but nothing
> which should effect the program.
>
> if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] or
> $_POST['first_name'] or $_POST['last_name'] or
> $_POST['address_street '] == "")[/color]

What you are testing for here is

$_POST['subscription_r ate'] contains a value
OR
$_POST['subscription_t ype'] contains a value
OR
$_POST['first_name'] contains a value
OR
$_POST['last_name'] contains a value
OR
$_POST['address_street '] is equal to an empty string

From what you have posted you appear to think that having the comparison
at the end evaluates the comparison for *all* of the variables.

What you should be doing is this:

if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] == "" or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] ==
"" or $_POST['first_name'] == "" or $_POST['last_name'] == "" or
$_POST['address_street '] == "")

[rest of post snipped]

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com

[Joe Blow]

Re: If ... else that does not work


"Chris Hope" <blackhole@elec trictoolbox.com > wrote in message
news:d6j44b$moi $1@lust.ihug.co .nz...[color=blue]
> Joe Blow wrote:
>[color=green]
>> I'm sure I'm missing something blindingly obvious here. I am
>> relatively new to PHP, so excuse dumb mistakes.
>>
>> I a trying to check a form submitted from an earlier page, and check
>> $_POST for empty values. Only some of them are not allowed to be
>> empty, hence the rather lengthy way in which the script is written. If
>> no required fields are empty, then I want another part of the script
>> to function, and the variables to be sent to a database. Easy eh? I
>> thought I should be able to simply use a big 'if ... else' statement.
>> The PHP is at the bottom.
>>
>> What happens in practice is that PHP is interpreting the first if
>> statement as always true, even when the $_POST variables are not ==
>> "", and the 'else' part of the PHP never fires. Can anybody spot the
>> idiot mistake I am making?
>>
>> I have obviously omitted some PHP for ease of reading, but nothing
>> which should effect the program.
>>
>> if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] or
>> $_POST['first_name'] or $_POST['last_name'] or
>> $_POST['address_street '] == "")[/color]
>
> What you are testing for here is
>
> $_POST['subscription_r ate'] contains a value
> OR
> $_POST['subscription_t ype'] contains a value
> OR
> $_POST['first_name'] contains a value
> OR
> $_POST['last_name'] contains a value
> OR
> $_POST['address_street '] is equal to an empty string
>
> From what you have posted you appear to think that having the comparison
> at the end evaluates the comparison for *all* of the variables.
>
> What you should be doing is this:
>
> if ($_POST['subscription_r ate'] == "" or $_POST['subscription_t ype'] ==
> "" or $_POST['first_name'] == "" or $_POST['last_name'] == "" or
> $_POST['address_street '] == "")
>
> [rest of post snipped]
>
> --
> Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com[/color]

Brilliant, many thanks to both of you. As I suspected, it is a bit obvious
once it is pointed out. I had it your way the other day and changed it for
some reason when struggling with something else.

JB

[Geoff Berrow]

Re: If ... else that does not work

I noticed that Message-ID: <neaje.4549$Rr3 .236@read1.cgoc able.net> from
Joe Blow contained the following:
[color=blue]
>Brilliant, many thanks to both of you. As I suspected, it is a bit obvious
>once it is pointed out. I had it your way the other day and changed it for
>some reason when struggling with something else.[/color]

When you are testing every element of an array (in this case the $_POST
array) you may find it more efficient to use a loop.

$missing="";
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value){
if($value==""){
$missing="<li>$ key</li>";
}
}

if ($missing!=""){
echo "Oops, you missed out <ul>$missing</ul>"
}

Untested.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Chris Hope]

Re: If ... else that does not work

Geoff Berrow wrote:
[color=blue]
> I noticed that Message-ID: <neaje.4549$Rr3 .236@read1.cgoc able.net>
> from Joe Blow contained the following:
>[color=green]
>>Brilliant, many thanks to both of you. As I suspected, it is a bit
>>obvious once it is pointed out. I had it your way the other day and
>>changed it for some reason when struggling with something else.[/color]
>
> When you are testing every element of an array (in this case the
> $_POST
> array) you may find it more efficient to use a loop.
>
> $missing="";
> foreach($_POST as $key=>$value){
> if($value==""){
> $missing="<li>$ key</li>";
> }
> }
>
> if ($missing!=""){
> echo "Oops, you missed out <ul>$missing</ul>"
> }
>
> Untested.[/color]

Or you could do it like this, if you only require some of the fields to
be completed:

foreach(array(' foo', 'bar', 'baz') as $fieldname) {
if($_POST[$fieldname] == '') {
...
}
}

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com