If else problem for test question

Anon

I am a newbee and have been working on some scripts to answer test questions. I am having a problem with my message variable. When the student fails to answer the question, doesn't pick a radio button, I would like a message to come up saying "you forgot to answer the question" Of course all of the fields are empty when the student loads the question page so the message is being outputted before the submit button is pushed. I need this message only to appear when the submit button is pushed not before. Here is the code and you can see at the bottom why it is doing it. I just don't know how to fix it.

<?php
$user = "meadd";
$pass = "27ert.atd";
$db = "monsterbadass";
$link = mysql_connect( "localhost", $user, $pass );
if ( ! $link )
die ("Couldn't connect to MySQL" );
mysql_select_db ( $db, $link )
or die ( "Couldn't open $db: ".mysql_error() );
$message="";
$numone=1;
$numtwo=0;
if ($calcA == "answerA") {
mysql_query("INSERT INTO test ( questionone )
values ( '$numtwo' )");
header("Location: http://www.careinternet.net/moduleone");
exit;
}
else if ($calcB == "answerB") {
mysql_query("INSERT INTO test ( questionone )
values ( '$numtwo' )");
header("Location: http://www.careinternet.net/moduleone/");
exit;
}
else if ($calcC == "answerC") {
mysql_query("INSERT INTO test ( questionone )
values ( '$numtwo' )");
header("Location: http://www.careinternet.net/moduleone/");
exit;
}
else if ($calcD == "answerD") {
mysql_query("INSERT INTO test ( questionone )
values ( '$numtwo' )");
header("Location: http://www.careinternet.net/moduleone/");
exit;
}
else if ($calcE == "answerE") {
mysql_query("INSERT INTO test ( questionone )
values ( '$numone' )");
header("Location: http://www.careinternet.net/moduleone/");
exit;
}
if (($calcA =="") && ($calcB =="") && ($calcC =="") && ($calcD =="") && ($calcE =="")) {
$message .="You forgot to answer the question!";
}
?>

Anon

Give the SUBMIT button a name and test to see if it has been clicked.

Also, I think you have your button tests wired backwards ... you should be combining them with OR the way you have it written, not AND. You're looking for any single failure, not serial failures.

Easier to turn it around.

if ($submit)
{
// check the bottons
if (($calcA) && ($calc😎 && ($calcC) && ($calcD) && ($calcE)) {
// everything clicked; now do the work
// put your database code here
// kick to a completion page when done
}
else {
$message .="You forgot to answer a question!";
}

}

... followed by the input page + form.

If you're going to reject the submission on the basis of a missing item, your FORM code should set the inputs to match those of the rejected submission. Don't ask users to re-enter everything just because of one missing item.

Anon

In this case I do need the AND's and not the || OR's. This is a question for a test and not a form to fill out. I want to test that the user has actually submitted an answer before redirecting to the next page. I have it set up now if the user hits the submit button without answering the question the database is not updated and it just returns back to the original question. But I was looking to add an error message as well to get their attention. The form is five radio buttons, not text to fill out.

Anyway would your advice still work in this situation? I think that is correct to test to see if the submit button has been hit before the message appears. This is my first try at this and I know it is fairly crude.

Thanks.

Anon

My favorite way of testing this is:

<?php
  function getdata( $error_message='' )
  {
  global $PHP_SELF, $required_X, $required_Y;
  echo $error_message; // no harm if message is empty
  echo "<form action=\"$PHP_SELF\"..... >";
  echo "<input type=text name=\"required_X\" "
    . " value=\"$required_X\">";
  ...
  echo "<input type=submit ...>...</form>";
  }

  if ($REQUEST_METHOD == 'POST') // form is being submitted
    {
    if ($required_X == '')
      $err .= "You forgot to enter X<br>";
    if ($required_Y == '')
      $err .= "You forgot to enter Y<br>";
    // more tests as needed
    if ( $err == '' ) // no errors at all
      {
      // do something with the data,
      // save to database,
      // redirect to next page, etc.
      }
    else
      get_data( $err ); // get form again
    }
  else // first time, not POSTED
      get_data( '' );
?>

Bundling the form-drawing into a function means you can easily
call it from several places (orginal GET of the form, any time
your validation feels the form is not correctly filled out, etc)
without repeating the code. You do have to list all the form
variables a globals, alas, but at least that is also confined to
one place only.