Help with simple evaluation of return value of function

[rr1024]

Hay all,
I know this is going to be really stupid problem, It seems I don't know how to evaluate the returned value from a function that returns true or false.

Here is the function I'm calling

function  checkEmail($email) {
 $email = trim( $email ); # removes whitespace
 if (!preg_match("/^( [a-zA-Z0-9] )+( [a-zA-Z0-9\._-] )*@( [a-zA-Z0-9_-] )+( [a-zA-Z0-9\._-] +)+$/" , $email)) {
  return false;
 }
 return true;
}

Here what I do when I call the above function

if ( checkEmail($rqst_mail) )

or I do this

$error = checkEmail($rqst_mail) ;
if ( $error )

I know the function is basically working
because, in the function I changed return false; to return "false" and return true to return "true";

Then changed

if ( $error ) to if ( $error == "true" )

This worked perfectly so my logic seems right?

It seem I can not evaluate the value returned by the function correctly unless the value is in "quotes" I even tried

if ( $error == true ), if ($error), 

I just don't see what I'm doing wrong I guess.
shouldn't this work simply like

if ( checkEmail($rqst_mail) )

Thanks for any help

[mtmosier]

if ( checkEmail($rqst_mail) )

Is correct.

You sure your function is returning the correct value? For example, whitespace is important in regular expressions. Looks like some was added for readability which shouldn't be there.

[rr1024]

Hello and thank you for the reply, I'm not sure about white space but I'll check to see if I can find anything.

when I do return the value like this

return true;

and I try to echo or print the output of the function I can't ever see anything but white space...lol

It seems I should be able to echo it like

$temp = checkEmail($email);
echo $temp;

and I should get true or false when they are NOT in cased in "quotes" but I never get anything, so I'm at a loss.

[mtmosier]

Boolean true prints as "1", and false prints as nothing. No quotes needed.

[rr1024]

Originally posted by mtmosier
Boolean true prints as "1", and false prints as nothing. No quotes needed.

mmm, maybe this will help because I think actually it may have been always returning false so it would never enter the IF

So maybe there is a problem with

if (!preg_match("/^( [a-zA-Z0-9] )+( [a-zA-Z0-9._-] )*@( [a-zA-Z0-9_-] )+( [a-zA-Z0-9._-] +)+$/" , $email))

Evaluating "[e-mail]"
if it's not evaluating correctly then it would return false and when I echo'd it I kept getting nothing....LOL

I wonder if this would be better for checking email addresses than the above preg_match

preg_match('/^[a-z0-9\\_\\.]+@[a-z0-9\\-]+\\.[a-z]+\\.?[a-z]{2,4}$/i', $email, $match) )

Any comments one which one would be better? I'm not sure why the one at the top doesn't work, I think it should?
I'll try to take a look tonight.

Thanks very much for the help

[mtmosier]

Your first one has a bunch of spaces in it which have to match against spaces in the email address. Since the email address doesn't contain spaces the preg_match always fails.

The latter one is better just for not having extra spaces. 🙂

[rr1024]

Here is a working version for a basic function for checking an email address or E-mail addresses.

Thanks a bunch guys!!!

in your script you can change $DEBUG = true; to put this in debug mode

   /**
     * checkEmail( $email )
     *
     * Short description.
     * This function does a simple E-mail check and should be used when people
     * change their email address in your script usually in the back end after registration
     *
     * Detail description
     * We trim the passed email so there are no leading or trailing spaces and
     * Preg_match the email address to a common syntax. Warning there are email
     * addresses that are good but may fail but it should be good for 90% of the
     * possible combinations.
     *
     * @access     public
     * @param      $email - E-mail address to verify syntax
     * @param      $Return - Array used for Debug mode
     * @global     $DEBUG - Used for Debuging code
     * @return     true / false if true = 1 else False =""
     * @since      1.0
     * @update     05.10.2005
     * @usage      if ( checkEmail( "[e-mail]" ) )
    **/
function checkEmail( $email )
{
    global $DEBUG;
    $Return = array();

$email = trim( $email ); # removes whitespace

if ( !empty($email) )  # in case we passed empty string
 {   #  validate email address syntax
     if ( preg_match('/^[a-z0-9\\_\\.]+@[a-z0-9\\-]+\\.[a-z]+\\.?[a-z]{2,4}$/i', $email, $match) ) {
          if ( $DEBUG ) {
               $Return[0] = "true";
               $Return[1] = $email;  # Alternately strtolower($match[0]
               $msg = "Return 0 = $Return[0]<br>Return 1 = $Return[1]";
               echo MailPrintErr( "File:<b> class.sendmail.inc.php</b><br>Function: checkEmail()<br>Clause: if ( preg_match)<br>".$msg, false );
               exit;

          }else return true;
     }else{
          if ( $DEBUG ) {
               $Return[0] = "false";
               $Return[1] = $email;
               $msg = "Return 0 = $Return[0]<br>Return 1 = $Return[1]";
               echo MailPrintErr( "File:<b> class.sendmail.inc.php</b><br>Function: checkEmail()<br>Clause: if ( preg_match)<br>".$msg, true );
               exit;

          }else return false;
     }# [ END ] if ( preg_match )
 }else{
     if ( $DEBUG ){
          $Return[0] = "true";
          $Return[1] = $email;
          $msg = "Empty email Failed function checkEmail;<br>Return 0 = $Return[0]<br>Return 1 = $Return[1]";
          echo MailPrintErr( "File:<b> class.sendmail.inc.php</b><br>Function:<b> checkEmail()</b><br>Clause:<b> if ( !empty($email) )</b><br>".$msg, true );
          exit;

     }else return false;
 }# [ END ] if ( !empty($email) )
}# [ END FUNCTION ] checkEmail( $email )

Here is the display function for $DEBUG mode ON

    /**
     * MailPrintErr($out,$error)
     *
     * Short description.
     * This function is used only in class.sendmail.inc.php to assist in debug of
     * this script and your script.
     *
     * Detail description
     * Determine if we are passing a error flag or passing flag with $error (true/false)
     * NOTE: when PASSING $error it should be False when your function is returning True
     *       and True when returning False
     *
     * @access     private
     * @param      $out - fuction messages detailing the error or passing information
     * @param      $color - Change color for:
     *             error; $error = false = Red
     *             Pass;  $Pass = ture = green
     * @param      $message - Array used for Debug mode
     * @global     $DEBUG - Used for Debuging code
     * @return     html
     * @since      1.0
     * @update     05.05.2005
     * @usage      if ( checkEmail( "[e-mail]" ) )
    **/
function MailPrintErr($out,$error) {
    if ( $error ){
         $color = "red";
         $message = "Error: Debug is on";
    }else{
         $color = "green";
         $message = "PASS: Debug is on";
    }# [ END ] if ( $error )
        $ret  = "<table cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\" align=\"center\" style=\"border: 1px solid ".$color."\"><tr><td bgcolor=\"".$color."\">";
        $ret .= "<font color=\"white\"><b>".$message."</b></font>";
        $ret .= "</td></tr>";
        $ret .= "<tr><td>";
        $ret .= $out;
        $ret .= "</td></tr></table>";
       return $ret;
}# [ END ] MailPrintErr($out,$error)