better: case or if statements question

lottos

I had a scenario where a result could be only one of two results. The scenario has now changed and the result could be one of three results (yes, no, maybe), so my existing code requires updating.

Based on the code below, I'd be interested in your opinion of whether I should go for 'case' or 'if'.

if (isset($myArray[$res['theid']])) 
{
    $theimage= ($myArray[$res['theid']] == 'e') ? 'yes.gif' : 'no.gif';   

    $res['message'] .= " <img src='{$imgdir}/{$theimage}' alt='image' border='0' />";   

}

tsinka

Hi,

what about using an array ?

$images = array('e'=>'yes.gif','n'=>'no.gif','m'=>'maybe.gif');
if (isset($myArray[$res['theid']])) 
{
    $thekey = $myArray[$res['theid']];
    $theimage= isset($images[$thekey]) ? $images[$thekey] : 'unspecified.gif';   

    $res['message'] .= " <img src='{$imgdir}/{$theimage}' alt='image' border='0' />";   

}

So you just need to extend the $images array if you have more options in the future.

Thomas

lottos

Danke Thomas.... that is a great solution!

Does it mean I should also create a small unspecified.gif file as it appears there will be quiet a few cases where there is no yes/no/maybe or is there a better way to handle that situation ?

tsinka

Is this some kind of question/answer application ?

Thomas

lottos

no, it's more for users to track by flagging whether they have viewed content - they have the option of marking it as yes (viewed), no (not viewed), maybe (come back to) or ignore/not flagging it.

if flagged, the user will see the graphic along the content subject heading - only for that user. it's personalised for each user who sees the same content but they see their own flag statuses.

in reality, users will not flag most subjects.

tsinka

Ok,

The if code gets only executed if $myArray contains some data.

So unspecified means that either there's a valid option but no matching image or someone wants to cheat a little bit. Cheating can be prevented by adding some code that checks if the submitted value matches one of the three valid values at all.

If you already have that validation code then unspecified just means "create that image and add the filename to the array".

Thomas

lottos

Originally posted by tsinka
Ok,

The if code gets only executed if $myArray contains some data.

So unspecified means that either there's a valid option but no matching image or someone wants to cheat a little bit. Cheating can be prevented by adding some code that checks if the submitted value matches one of the three valid values at all.

If you already have that validation code then unspecified just means "create that image and add the filename to the array".

Thomas

Yes, if code only executes if $myArray contains some data.

Sorry, my mistake/my bad explanation... if the if code is executed, $myArray should only ever contain either e, n, or m and no other flags, so I guess the code will work fine and will display the unspecified.gif if a called image goes missing.

The user can only flag the subject as one of the 3 flags above so can't cheat it.