form processing

[itsource]

In the form processing, the form itself must retain the data that the user submitted when the error was displayed.

consider following method.

<input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" value=\"<?php echo $HTTP_POST_VARS[\'email\']; ?>\">

and this

<input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" value=\"<?php echo $email ?>\">

two method has the same result. But which method is better and can you explain it?

[Anon]

Is their a correct answer? This sounds like a trick or a riddle.

Seriously, I don't see the reason for using the second option. If the
POST_VARS and GET_VARS variables will allways have the form information handy, based of course on which method you used, why deal with it any other way. It's a bit more tidy.

Admittedly, it's also a bit more cumbersom.

I'm curious also if $HTTP_POST_VARS[email] and $email are actually the same variable as opposed to two different versions of the same occupying two different addresses in memory.

Later on,
Big Din K.R.

[[deleted]]

The first, for two reasons:

1- the second method depends on a setting in the php.ini
That means that if you put the script on a different server that doesn't have that setting, it stops working.

2- using the HTTP_POST_VARS etc arrays means you immediately know where the variable came from: POST VARS. In the second method, $email could come from anywhere.