[Resolved] looking to shorten an ifelse

[fr8]

I have this lenghty ifelse statment for my join form. I check each varible for two things.
1. was data entered for the variable.
2. Does it contain characters i do not want used.

What i have works fine but its just long. Was wondering if i could shorten it and if so how?

# Any errors in the posted fields? If found show exact error and login.
if((!$first_name) || (!$last_name) || (!$street_address) ||
 (!$city) || (!$state) || (!$zipcode) || (!$country) ||
 (!$username) || (!$email_address) || (!$user_password) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$first_name)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$last_name)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z0-9 .-]/i',$street_address)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$city)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$state)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^0-9 .-]/i',$zipcode)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$country)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z0-9 @._-]/i',$email_address)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z0-9]/i',$user_password)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z0-9]/i',$username)) ||
 (preg_match('/[^a-z0-9 ?!.]/i',$info))){
    echo 'Error(s) have occured during your validation.
 Please fix the following information! <br>';
    if(!$first_name){
        echo 'First Name was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$first_name)){
echo 'First Name has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
}
    if(!$last_name){
        echo 'Last Name was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$last_name)){
echo 'Last Name has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
}
    if(!$street_address){
        echo 'Street Address was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z0-9 .-]/i',$street_address)){
echo 'Street Address has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z and 0-9!<BR>';
}
    if(!$city){
        echo 'City was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$city)){
echo 'City has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
}
    if(!$state){
        echo 'State was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$state)){
echo 'State has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
}
    if(!$zipcode){
        echo 'Zip/Postal Code was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^0-9 .-]/i',$zipcode)){
echo 'Zip/Postal Code has Invalid characters! Use only 0-9!<BR>';
}
    if(!$country){
        echo 'Country was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z]/i',$country)){
echo 'Country has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
}
    if(!$email_address){
        echo 'Email Address was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z0-9 @._-]/i',$email_address)){
echo 'Email Address not valid! Please use [email][e-mail][/email] format!<BR>';
}
    if(!$user_password){
        echo 'Password was left Blank. Please enter it below.<BR>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z0-9]/i',$user_password)){
echo 'Password has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z and 0-9!<BR>';
}
    if(!$username){
        echo 'Desired Username was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
if(preg_match('/[^a-z0-9]/i',$username)){
echo 'Username has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z and 0-9!<BR>';
}
    include 'users/join_form.php';
    exit();
}

[HalfaBee]

I would create a little function.

And call it with the values needed.

I would not do the enourmous test at the start, just go thru all the fields.

HalfaBee

function test_field( $value , $field_name ,$preg_test )
{
    if(!$value){
        echo "$field_name was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>";
    }
    else
        if(preg_match($preg_test,$value)){
        echo '$field_name has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
    }
}

test_field( $first_name , 'First Name' , '/[^a-z]/i' );

[fr8]

that would do the trick and do it well. but how would i stop the script? What i mean by this is that after checking all of the fields and if an error has occured to end the script and display all of the results. in other words i still need to add this to the end.

include 'users/join_form.php'; 
    exit();

I could add this to the inside of the funtion but then it would stop on the first one that an error occured in. Well if it errored on the first one that means there are how ever many others still waiting to be checked. To me this would be fine but to a customer they may just bugger off if he has to stop and correct everything to many times instead of doing it in one big.

[Weedpacket]

Put all the calls to test_field() in a function test_all_fields().

Instead of test_field() echo()ing the messages straight off, have it return a string, which gets added to one that test_all_fields() is building. At the end of test_all_fields(), return that string.

Look at the string returned: if it's empty, there were no errors. If it's not, echo it and exit().

function test_field( $value , $field_name ,$preg_test )
{
    if(!$value){
        return "$field_name was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>";
    }
    elseif(preg_match($preg_test,$value)){
        return '$field_name has Invalid characters! Use only A-Z!<BR>';
    }
    return "";
}


function test_all_fields($first_name, ...)
//or just use () above and use $_POST below
$error_string = '';
$error_string .= test_field( $first_name , 'First Name' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
...
return $error_string;
}

[fr8]

That fixes things up. Thank you much both of you.

Now what about an ifelse for the $error_string?
Mine works but im sure that there is a better way.

Oh and do i need the last return ''; in the first function?

function test_field( $value , $field_name ,$preg_test )
{
    if(!$value){
        return ''.$field_name.' was left Blank. Please enter it below.<br>';
    }
    elseif(preg_match($preg_test,$value)){
        return ''.$field_name.' has Invalid characters! Valid
 characters are A-Z, 0-9 and punctuation!<BR>';
    }
        return '';
}

function test_all_fields($one, $two, $three, $four, $five, $six,
 $seven, $eight, $nine, $ten, $eleven)
{
        global $error_string;
$error_string .= test_field( $one , 'First Name' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $two , 'Last Name' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $three , 'Street Address' , '/[^a-z0-9 .-]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $four , 'City' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $five , 'State' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $six , 'Zip/Postal Code' , '/[^0-9]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $seven , 'Country' , '/[^a-z]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $eight , 'Email Address' , '/[^a-z0-9 .-@_]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $nine , 'Username' , '/[^a-z0-9]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $ten , 'Password' , '/[^a-z0-9]/i' );
$error_string .= test_field( $eleven , 'Our Question' , '/[^a-z0-9 .?!]/i' );

return $error_string;
}

test_all_fields($first_name, $last_name, $street_address, $city,
 $state, $zipcode, $country, $email_address, $username,
 $user_password, $info);

if( $error_string == '' ){
//This ifelse doesnt seem to be efficient.
//Considering I dont need to know the OK! if it works.
echo 'OK!';
}else{
echo $error_string;
include('join_form.php');
exit();
}

[laserlight]

hmm... if that's the case, then perhaps:

if($error_string != ''){
	echo $error_string;
	include('join_form.php');
	exit();
}

[fr8]

thank you very much for the fast reply laserlight.

Thats what i was looking for. I knew there had to be a better way than i was doing it. Thanks again to all that helped with this.