validating types and passing an array intact

[gwizz]

I am trying to use a function to validate types in the $_REQUEST variable. It works for all defined datatypes except for arrays.

If an array is passed to the function like the example below, the letters "A" "r" "r" "a" "y" come back in positions [0-5], even though the original array should be returned intact.

Data to submit:
 <form action="test.php" method="post" id="add">
        		<td><select name="category[]" id="category[]" multiple>
        			<option value="1">1</option>
        			<option value="2">2</option>
        			<option value="3">3</option>
        			<option value="4">4</option>
					</select></td>
<input type="submit" name="submit"><HR>
<?

function validate_types(&$array, $names)
{
	// Get rid of magic quotes 
	if (get_magic_quotes_gpc())
	{
		$array = array_map('stripslashes', $array);
	}

// Cycle through array
foreach ($names as $name => $type)

{		

	// Set types
	if (isset($array["$name"]))
	{
		switch ($type)
		{
			// Set as integer
			case 'INT':
				$array["$name"] = intval($array["$name"]);
				break;

			// Set as float
			case 'FLOAT':

				$array["$name"] = floatval($array["$name"]);

				break;

			// string - trim data, strip slashes, banish HTML
			case 'STR':

				$array["$name"] = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlspecialchars(strip_tags(trim($array["$name"]))));

				break;

			// string with html
			case 'STR_HTML':

				$array["$name"] = mysql_real_escape_string(trim($array["$name"]));

				break;

			// Do nothing, i.e. arrays, etc.
			default:

		}

	}

}

return $array;

}


	validate_types($_REQUEST, array('name' => 'STR', 'description_small' => 'STR_HTML', 'category' => 'ARRAY', 'keywords' => 'STR'));

// foreach has an error because $_REQUEST['category'] has strange data in it after the function call when it should be returned intact
	foreach ($_REQUEST['category'] as $cat) {
   print "$cat<BR>";
		}

?>

Please assist.

[sfullman]

I don't understand - you have no case for ARRAY.

Request vars will either be string or arrays - which is why you want to convert the types to begin with (judging by your coding, you're a C guy or something like that - and BTW "$name" is not necessary - just $name will work faster :-)

so after this line of code:
// Set types
if (isset($array["$name"]))
{

you need to add this nesting:
if(is_array($array[$name])){
//deal with arrays here
}else{
//your other cases
}

no passed post or request is going to have array keys deeper than one level so you're safe and don't need to call a recurring function.

Also BTW, usually PHP is pretty liberal and this type juggling isn't necessary - I think mysql receives data contextually as string/int without any help. Also I just usually leave the slashes in - I find they go into an insert or update statement flawlessly and have never bothered with them

Samuel

[gwizz]

Hi Samuel,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have no case for an array since I don't really need to perform any changes on it, all I want is for it to be returned intact. I assumed it would jump to "default:" which is at the end, and return whatever it was passed.

The expected data type is passed to the "validate_types" function as a parameter for the switch cases.

If I comment out the call to the function, the script displays the category array. If I remove the comments I get this error:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/amazingw/public_html/test.php on line 95

After this error, If I try:
print $REQUEST['category'][0]; I get "A"
print $REQUEST['category'][1]; I get "r"
print $REQUEST['category'][2]; I get "r"
print $REQUEST['category'][3]; I get "a"
print $_REQUEST['category'][4]; I get "y"

I don't want this returned. I want what was passed returned untouched.

I have also found if I take the "'category' => 'ARRAY'" out of the parameter for the function, the same error results.

Thanks,

Jacob

[gwizz]

any ideas? Thanks.