[RESOLVED] What do I do with this one?

[ppowell]

class EditResultGenerator extends MethodGenerator {

 function EditResultGenerator() {}

 function &getResult($album = '') {

  // THE VARIABLE $album could have a value or be NULL or have an "illegal placeholder" (i.e., a value that is not a legitimate "album" or directory name)

 if (!preg_match('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-_\.\+\s\t]+/i', $album)) unset($album, $_REQUEST['album']);
 list($GLOBALS['album'], $_REQUEST['album']) = array($album, $album); // I THOUGHT THAT WOULD SET IT UPON EXITING THE METHOD

 // DO MORE STUFF
 return $stuff;

 }

}

// THE MOMENT YOU LEAVE THIS METHOD, IF $album = "***ILLEGAL PLACEHOLDER***" THEN $album SHOULD = NULL BUT IT DOESN'T IT = "***ILLEGAL PLACEHOLDER***"

This occurs within PHP 5.0.4 and in PHP 4.3.11, however, does not occur in PHP 4.3.2.

In the class method I have an optional parameter $album, because $album might be a directory name, "ILLEGAL PLACEHOLDER" which can never be a directory name, or "" (NULL). If it's "ILLEGAL PLACEHOLDER", $album must be reset to NULL, however, I can't do that. I know in PHP it's illegal to pass an optional parameter by reference, but that'd be the only way I could do that.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanx
Phil

[ppowell]

Out of fairness I thought I should at least post the solution to this:

The problem was not in the method; the problem was that indeed $album was altered - but only in the method; once you exited the method it reverted back to its original value - that value it got from parsing $_REQUEST['album'].

So what do you do? Re-parse, what else!

foreach ($_REQUEST as $key => $val) if (!isset(${$key})) ${$key} = $val; // INITIAL PARSE
@array_insert($this->performActionContinue('', 'hasAlbum'), $this->errorArray);  // WILL SEED $this->errorArray OR DO NOTHING
if (${'continue' . ucfirst($actionPrefix)}) {
 @reset($_REQUEST);
 foreach ($_REQUEST as $key => $val) ${$key} = $val; // THIS IS THE IMPORTANT STEP!!
}

Phil