shortcut to multiple if-else statements?

chongallen

Hi,
RE: shortcut to multiple if-else statements?
I have a small question which I was hoping that someone might have an answer for:
I have 4 variables: $item1, $item2, $item3 and $item4. Let's say for example that only 3 of these 4 variables have a value:

$item1="shoes";
$item2="jacket";
$item4="waistcoat";

The question is: "Is there a way to write a loop such that it will print the variable's values if it is not Null?"...something like:

for ($i=1; $i<5; $i++) {
if (isset('$item'$i)){
echo "Item $i is a".( '$item'.$i);
}
}

I know the above code is a load of gibberish and doesn't work...but I was wondering if there is a way to generate the strings $item1, $item2, $item3, item4 .in the for loop within isset() and echo?

Currently, I am writing separate if-else statements for each variable, that is:

if (isset($item1)){
echo ""Item 1 is a $item1.";
}
if (isset($item2)){
echo ""Item 2 is a $item2.";
}
.....and so on. This is obviously a little tedious if you have more than 4 items!!

Can anyone think of a shortcut.....short of putting everything in an array?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions given.

Allen.

Anon

Hi
The logic that you have tried with the for loop is correct except your syntax for the code is incorrect. Try the below changed for loop

for ($i=1; $i<5; $i++) {
if (isset(${"item".$i})) {
echo "Item $i a ".${"item".$i}."<br>";
}
}

[deleted]

Indeed. It is a neat trick where you can
create the name of a variable from other variables.

Another format of the same would be:

$the_var="item$i";
echo "Item $i a ".$$the_var."<BR>";

With "variable variables" you can also create variables on the fly, like this:

$var_name="newvar";
$$var_name="hello";
echo $newvar;

kparker

Can anyone think of a shortcut.....short of putting everything in an array?

But why rule out an array? An array is far better than a sequence of variables named VAR1, VAR2 ... VARn.

chongallen

Thanks to Kaushik and Vincent!!! In response to Kirk's question...there's nothing wrong with using an array except that the variable names are predefined and I can't change it. The common denominator between the variable names are their prefixes.
Once again, thanks!!