$string not passed to if() conditional?

Anon

I have tried to figure this problem out, and have narrowed it down to a string not being passed to an if() conditional nested in a for() loop. Thing is, I cannot for the life of me see why it is so...

simple code:

echo $dept_id;
// $dept_id==2

for ($i=0; $i<$numcats; $i++) {

echo echo $dept_id;
//$dept_id==2

 if ($cats[$i]["dept_id"]==$dept_id) {
	 echo "<br>catname=".$cats[$i]["cat_name"];

//this is not echoed
}
}

The thing is, if I add
if ($cats[$i]["dept_id"]==2
the if statement equates, and executes

ehm, why?
any ideas appreciated!

Anon

Maybe I am jsut trippin... (I did just watch Vanilla Sky)... But...

The double echo seems weird.
I assume $dept_id has already been set.
Looks like you have too many periods and too many brackets.

TRY THIS:

for ($i=0; $i<$numcats; $i++)
{

if ($cats[$i]==$dept_id) { echo " catname="$cats[$i]"; }

}

I can't see any reason why the above would not work. Try it out and let me know.

AaronZoller.com

Anon

i think we're both trippin
your eg doesn't work as I have a two dimensional array (the second 'part' of the array is associative)

but to try and clarify the problem:

------
$numcats=count($cats);
for ($i=0; $i<$numcats; $i++) {
/t $cat_id=$cats[$i]["dept_id"];
/t echo " deptid=$dept_id";
/t echo " catid=$cat_id";
/t if ($cat_id==$dept_id) {
/t/t echo" WE HAVE EQUATED";
/t/t }else{
/t/t echo" NOPE";
/t }

}

gives (cut for brevity):
catid=1
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2

why on earth are those fileds with deptid not executing????

Anon

sorry for the last post - was trying to indent my code...btw the double echo was a typo here - pasted code below

i think we're both trippin
your eg doesn't work as I have a two dimensional array (the second 'part' of the array is associative)

but to try and clarify the problem:

------
$numcats=count($cats);
for ($i=0; $i<$numcats; $i++) {
$cat_id=$cats[$i]["dept_id"];
echo " deptid=$dept_id";
echo " catid=$cat_id";
if ($cat_id==$dept_id) {
echo" WE HAVE EQUATED";
}else{
echo" NOPE";
}

}

gives (cut for brevity):
catid=1
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2
NOPE
deptid=2
catid=2

why on earth are those fileds with deptid not executing????

Anon

when you echo $dept_id does it show?
I was thinking maybe you were trying to use dept_id like
www.example.com/index.php?dept_id=1

if you are I was gonna suggest using
$_GET['dept_id']

other than that, I have no idea, I think it has a lot to do with where you are trying to get dept_id from

Anon

$cat_id and $dept_id are read from 2D associative arrays, and I know they are being assigned the correct values since the echos show it

This has really stumped me! The code below echos
NO cat_id=x dept_id=y
for as many ligns as there are rows in the $cats array, where x=$cat_id and $y=$dept_id

The thing is, there are a number of lines where x and y have the same number, so why has the else statement executed? This is really weird, and is a tad annoying!

---code

$numcats=count($cats);
for ($i=0; $i<$numcats; $i++) {
$cat_id=$cats[$i]["dept_id"];
if ($cat_id==$dept_id) {
echo" WE HAVE EQUATED";
}else{
echo" NO $cat_id $dept_id";
}
}

Anon

problem solved -

my associative array is read from a tab-delimited file containing many lines with the following values:

$dept_name[tab]$value[tab]$dept_id

because $dept_id is the last value on the line, the explode("\t", $file) function introduced a space into $dept_id value (probably because of the \n)

not a problem, but will have to go back and introduce a tab before a new line into the file.