If statement

Ivains

Hi everyone,
Need a little guidance please. I wrote this IF statement below:

if($topic2 == "" or $topic2 == "NA" and $topic3 == "" or $topic3 == "NA" and $topic4 == "" or $topic4 == "NA" and $topic5 == "" or $topic5 == "NA") {
$xtopics = "Topic 1: $topic1"; }
else if($topic3 == "" or $topic3 == "NA" and $topic4 == "" or $topic4 == "NA" and $topic5 == "" or $topic5 == "NA") {
$xtopics = "Topic 1: $topic1 Topic 2: $topic2"; }
else if($topic4 == "" or $topic4 == "NA" and $topic5 == "" or $topic5 == "NA") {
$xtopics = "Topic 1: $topic1 Topic 2: $topic2 Topic 3: $topic3"; }
else if($topic5 == "" or $topic5 == "NA") {
$xtopics = "Topic 1: $topic1 Topic 2: $topic2 Topic 3: $topic3 Topic 4: $topic4"; }
else {
$xtopics = "Topic 1: $topic1 Topic 2: $topic2 Topic 3: $topic3 Topic 4: $topic4 Topic 5: $topic5"; }

However it is only returning $topic1 and none of the others. Did I write this correctly or is there a better way of doing this?

Your guidance wiuld be gratefully appreciated. 🙂

jpmoriarty

1) put php codes around your php so it's easier to read for the rest of us
2) if you're doing if statements then i always think it's a good idea to put them into brackets - separate the "and"s and the "or"s etc.
3) i think you're trying to do an "if / elseif" statement, but since you've put spaces inbetween the else's and the if's, you've actually got a string of "if / else" statements. Change your "else if"'s to "elseif"'s and you should get better results - maybe even the right ones!

feldon23

It is worth the trouble to learn arrays...

// Set a counter and reset our output string $xtopics
$xtopics = '';
$i = 0;

// Walk through $topics from 0 to the max number of topics
foreach ($topics as $topic) {
    if($topic)
      $xtopics .= "Topic$i: $topic<br>\n";
    $i += 1;
}

// Strip off last line break if there is something to strip off
if($xtopics != "")
  $xtopics = substr($xtopics,-5);

How do you use arrays? Here...

// Fill first 4 elements of $topics
$topics = array('this is my first topic', 
                'this is my second topic',
                'this is my thrid topic',
                'this is my fourth topic'); // first four topics

// Change element 3 of topics
$topics[3] =    'this is my third topic'); // change third topic

// Add a fifth element to topics
$topics[count($topics)+1] = 'this is my fifth topic'); // set fifth topic

Arrays allow you to dynamically add and remove topics instead of hard-coding a certain number of topics.

dalecosp

Originally posted by jpmoriarty
1) put php codes around your php so it's easier to read for the rest of us

Good idea...

2) if you're doing if statements then i always think it's a good idea to put them into brackets - separate the "and"s and the "or"s etc.

And parentheses, and "&&" is better than "AND", "||" than "OR"...generally.

3) i think you're trying to do an "if / elseif" statement, but since you've put spaces inbetween the else's and the if's, you've actually got a string of "if / else" statements. Change your "else if"'s to "elseif"'s and you should get better results - maybe even the right ones!

Possibly...but I believe that "else if" is still a valid grammar, else he would have parse errors, right? 😉

Ivains

Thanks for all the advice I really do appreciate and yes I will start studying arrays and functions a little more.

Once Again Thanks To All!

🙂 Ivan