[RESOLVED] VERY New to Arrays, Does This Look Correct?

partypete

Hello,

I'm new to arrays and am trying to use in_array() and array_search() to validate user input and convert the user input into a piece of SQL. The user submits a string, it's validated, and the SQL version is set. Below is the code I've assembled to do this. It appears to work when testing, but I just wanted a second opinion in case these array functions work differently than what I understand....

So when a user submits "StartsD", I want to make sure it's in the safe list of options, and then convert it to "event_starts DESC" which will be used later in a MySQL query.... Does the code below look okay....?

Thanks!

<?php
// Value submitted by user via drop-menu
$sortvalue = "StartsD";
// Array of safe options for validation and conversion to SQL "ORDER BY..."
$sortoptions = array("event_starts ASC" => "StartsA", "event_starts DESC" => "StartsD");
// Make sure the user submitted value is in the list of safe options
if(in_array("$sortvalue", $sortoptions)){
// If value is found in the array, get it's SQL equivalent for use in query
$sortby = array_search("$sortvalue", $sortoptions);
} else {
// A safe default in case nothing is found above
$sortby = "event_id ASC";
}
?>

devinemke

i suggest an even simpler approach:

$sortvalue = 'StartsD';

$sortoptions = array(
'StartsA' => 'event_starts ASC',
'StartsD' => 'event_starts DESC' 
);

if (isset($sortoptions[$sortvalue])) {$sortby = $sortoptions[$sortvalue];}
else {$sortby = 'event_id ASC';}

partypete

Simpler is always better 🙂

Could you take a second and help me understand this quickly...

In your example, StartsA and StartsD are now the keys?

And this code $sortoptions[$sortvalue]... is looking for $sortvalue inside of $sortoptions and if it finds a match it gets the value that belongs to that key?

Thanks for helping clear this up.

devinemke

partypete wrote:
In your example, StartsA and StartsD are now the keys?

And this code $sortoptions[$sortvalue]... is looking for $sortvalue inside of $sortoptions and if it finds a match it gets the value that belongs to that key?

yes

partypete

So many ways to do the same thing ;-) I'll take your route! And I'll be looking into how exactly this works... $sortoptions[$sortvalue]. Not sure where I'll find it on PHP.net, but I will 😃

Thanks for all your help!