Link Problem

czambran

I have a file call letterindex.php that produces links for everyletter plus one for All and another that say '#' for numbers and symbols.

The link is the following:
<a href="selector.php?type=song&letter=A" class="letterindex" target="secondframe">A</a>.(The same is for B-Z and All and #)

Selector.php takes the value of $letter and does a query to a MySQL db and gets the records that start with that letter, all record if there was the word all in $letter, and it was supposed to select records that start with number or symbols when the value of $letter was #.

The problem is that when the link with the # is clicked $letter seems to be set but empty and not null(Dont know if it can be empty and null at the same time) and I know this because I use isset, empty, is_null to test the variable. Can somebody tell why is that? I mean I was expecting the variable $letter to hold the character '#' but it doesn't 😢

Any explanation will be greatly appreciated.
Christian

rachel2004

You might have to post some code so someone can see where the problem is.

czambran

I hope this clarifies my problem:
The whole thing is one file called linkproblem.php

<?
if (isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
if(is_null($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is null<br>";
if (empty($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is empty<br>";  

}
?>
<a href="linkproblem.php?letter=#">#</a>

you see this return empty but thing is that it shouldn't. The value of $_REQUEST['letter'] should be '#'

Any ideas why?

rachel2004

If $REQUEST['letter'] is not set, then it is pointless to execute the statement inside of your 'if' block, no? You should use 'else' clauses to catch instances when the variable is not set. I'm not entirely sure what your goal is, but give this a try regardless:

<?php
if (isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
	echo "<p>Value of variable is: <strong>".$_REQUEST['letter']."</strong></p>";
} else {
	echo "Variable is not set.";
}
?>
<a href="<?php echo 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).'/'.basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']); ?>?letter=#">#</a>

If the path to you file letter.php is different, modify the href path. Hope this helped.

czambran

rachel I appreciate the time you are taking to help with this but I don't think you are addresing my problem. The php code is not gonna get executed the first time around but once you click on the link and it goes back to it the $REQUEST['letter'] should be set and it should go inside the if statements which it is doing, the problem is that $REQUEST['letter'] see to be empty when it should have the value of '#'. Do u see this? This is the problem I am having! I know it wont go in if the variable is not set. The thing is that the value that $_REQUEST['letter'] holds(or lack of it I should say seems it seems to be empty) is differente that the one it should have. Do u understand my question now?

Thanks

rachel2004

You can take the code I have and test it or modify it. If you wish to use your code, consider using $GET instead of $REQUEST. Like I said, if you are using isset() to check whether a variable is set,

<?
if (isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {

but it is not set, then nothing in the 'if' block of your code will execute. If it is set, then it would test FALSE to the two inner checks

if(is_null($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is null<br>";
if (empty($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is empty<br>";  

}
?>

so you shouldn't see anything outputted back to your browser. You probably want to try this:

<?php
if (isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
if(!is_null($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is not null null<br>";
if (!empty($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is not empty<br>";  

}
?>
<a href="linkproblem.php?letter=#">#</a>

and you should see something if your isset() check is TRUE. Hope that helped.

czambran

Rachel thanks for all your help. I think I created the confusion of the problem I am really having by putting everything on one script. ( I actually thought I was being clever, but I ended shooting myself on the foot). I'll post new code that I hope will clearly show the problem I am having. I'll really apreciate it if you will check this thread again later in the day, by then I will have posted the new code.

Thanks so much

czambran

I hope this illustrates my problem

This file is just a plain HTML file

This second file is the one that contains the problem;

<?
if (isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
if(is_null($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is null<br>";
if (empty($_REQUEST['letter'])) echo "It is empty<br>";
echo "The value of the \$_REQUEST['letter'] is {$_REQUEST['letter']}";  

}
?>

When you click on the first link of the HTML file the output is :
"It is empty"
"The value of the $REQUEST['letter'] is "(Notice that there is nothing after the 'is'"
when it shouldn't. The ouput should be:
"The value of the $REQUEST['letter'] is #".
But the other two links work just fine.

I do not understand this behavior. Is there something special about the '#' character I should know about?

Thanks

czambran

Is there anybody out there who can please tell me why the strange behavior?

I am begging now :rolleyes: