the SWITCH function

[meanrat]

Hello all

Thanks for reading...

I am a student and must update a php-controlled website. I am starting to understand it quite good, but there's still a problem with the website, and of course...the owner of it doesn't feel happy if that site still won't work for another two weeks.

So I hope there's someone willing to help me out, because the people I asked at school won't reply. Too busy with other things.

The problem is about the SWITCH function. Let me enter the code first.

<?
include "includes/head.php";
if(!isset($p)) $p=1;
switch ($p) {
case 1:
include "includes/page1.php";
break;
case 2:
include "includes/page2.php";
break;
case 3:
include "includes/page3.php";
break;
case 4:
include "includes/page4.php";
break;
}
include "includes/foot.php";
?>

Now this is a site where there are several buttons which should link to the files page1.php to page4.php. As you might understand :p . Obvious, when you enter the site, you will automatically go to page1.php. But when you click on the button 'History' you will go to www.firedepart.nl/?p=2 which should trigger the switch function at CASE 2. Then of course, page2.php should be included.

But this does not work. I still get page1.php. And when I change the code (page1.php to page3.php) I get page3.php at the start, so the code is definately working. But I think when the link of 'History' goes to www.firedepart.nl/?p=2, the code doesn't see that p=2 so refuses to go to CASE 2.

Hopefully you understand me as a newbie.
Thanks for your attention!

Regards,
Maarten / MeanRat

[laserlight]

Here's one way to do it:

<?php
if (isset($_GET['p'])) {
	switch ($_GET['p']) {
	case 1:
		include "includes/page1.php";
		break;
	case 2:
		include "includes/page2.php";
		break;
	case 3:
		include "includes/page3.php";
		break;
	case 4:
		include "includes/page4.php";
		break;
	default:
		include "includes/page1.php";
	}
} else {
	include "includes/page1.php";
}
?>

There's actually a simpler way, which takes advantage of the regular form of your include path:

<?php
if (isset($_GET['p']) && in_array($_GET['p'], range(1, 4))) {
	include "includes/page" . $_GET['p'] . ".php";
} else {
	include "includes/page1.php";
}
?>

[ixos]

The switch function is probably your best betfor displaying these pages, since it allows for some more readable code and lets you use different filenames for different pages.

You can ditch the isset($p) code, and just let the switch do the work in the default case, as you already do.

switch ($_GET['p']) {
    case '1':
        include('includes/page1.php');
        break;
    case '2':
        include('includes/page2.php');
        break;
    case '3':
        include('includes/page3.php');
        break;
    case '4':
        include('includes/page4.php');
        break;
    default:
        include('includes/page1.php');
        break;
} 

Try that.

[laserlight]

You can ditch the isset($p) code, and just let the switch do the work in the default case, as you already do.

That's poor advice.
You still need to check that the incoming variable exists before comparing it with given values.
For this, [man]isset/man or [man]empty/man are used, which one exactly depending on the exact requirements.